Picture Perfect
by Random O' Panda
Summary: Jaune winds up receiving a bit of advice from Velvet, and the next day she discovers something that just seems... right. Now a series!
1. Chapter 1

Hey there everyone! This Jaune/Velvet idea hit my mind while I was at work, and I wanted to share it. For now I'm just going to keep it as a one-shot, but if it generates enough interest I'll keep it going.

I mean, really, look at how cute they are together. So please leave a review and tell me what you think.

For the setup, this starts just before the Beacon dance. Team CFVY managed to make it back in time to attend, although RWBY still had to put it all together.

 _'Apostrophe sentences in italics are thoughts.'_

Disclaimer: I own... my clothes, but I don't own RWBY.

xXxXx

"Jaune, do we have to practice today? I kinda still need to buy a dress."

"It's only for the morning, Nora, so you can go shopping afterwards... Wait, shouldn't you have got that done a while ago?"

"Phyrra invited me, yeah, but I had to take care of something."

Team JNPR was leaving their dorm room on their way to the Emerald Forest so they could train. The Vytal Prom was going to be held the following day, so Professor Port had had spontaneously cancelled his class to allow the students to prepare. According to the heavyset man, 'This is the one of the most important events of your youth! How could I possibly interfere with that? Please, be merry and rested so that you may enjoy your time together.'

Jaune decided that they should get one good Grimm-slaying practice session in since many first-year teams would be sent on missions almost right after the dance. Armed and ready, they walked out into the early morning sun.

Their chatting continued until Jaune, not paying attention, almost walked into a rabbit faunus with a camera. The only thing that stopped the collision was Ren grabbing him by the shoulder and yanking him backwards. Velvet herself didn't pay them any mind, snapping photographs of some other students as they passed. Her teammate and leader Coco was leaning against a nearby tree, a bemused smile on her face.

Jaune called out, "Sorry about that, Velvet. I wasn't paying attention."

Hearing her name, she turned and looked at team JNPR with a quizzical tilt. "Huh?" She glanced down. "Oh, sorry, am I in the way?"

"Nah, it was my bad. Welcome back to Beacon, by the way. How did your mission go?"

The rabbit frowned. "Very hectic. The concentration of Grimm was way beyond our initial scope. We only just got back last night."

Coco chipped in, "I heard that team RWBY took things over for the dance since we took so long. Any idea how that's going?"

"It seems to be going well," offered Phyrra. "Though I did overhear Yang and Weiss arguing over a few of the song choices."

Nora suddenly jumped towards Coco. "Hey, you always have great fashion. Any chance you could help me dress shop later, maybe after lunch?"

"Sure thing, but wouldn't it have been better to get that done earlier?" Jaune had to hold back a snicker. "Who are you all going with?"

"Well, oh Savior of Valkyries, Ren and I are going together... I mean, not together-together, but with each other, and Jaune has been trying to ask Weiss."

Velvet turned to the blonde. "'Trying' meaning it hasn't gone well?"

"Weeeell... No. But I have the perfect strategy that I'm putting into action later today! I borrowed a friend's guitar so that I can serenade her into going."

The rest of JNPR looked away awkwardly, clearly not wanting to speak their mind. Coco caught the vibe and asked with trepidation, "Can we get a preview?"

Jaune put a finger to his lips in thought. "I could demonstrate the vocals I came up with, though it loses the effect without the guitar." He cleared his throat and belted out his song, "Weiss Schnee~ Will you accompany me? To the dance~ Ooon Saturdaaaay?"

Velvet and Coco simply stared at him in morbid awe. It wasn't as if he had a bad singing voice, but how in Remnant did he think that was a good song? They met each other's eyes and silently urged the other to break the news now. Velvet lost the exchange and slowly said, "Um, Jaune? Have you... maybe thought about going simple? You know, giving her a rose and saying 'I like you, please go to the dance with me?'"

His shoulders drooped. "Was it not good?"

"I'm sorry... But you're a pretty good guy, and she has to know that. Just avoid pick-up lines and the... gimmicks, and it'll be alright." She put her hand on his shoulder in comfort, which seemed to work as he visibly cheered up.

"Thanks, I kinda needed to hear that. Well, we should probably get the practice going. The sooner we do, the faster Nora can go dress shopping. Good luck with your photography, and I hope we see you two at the dance."

That reminded the brunette of something. "Oh! Before you go," she held up the camera for all to see, "do you mind if I take a few pictures?"

-Later-

Jaune felt confident that evening. He had gone to a flower shop and picked out the best white rose he could find. It was the color of choice since not only was it Weiss's primary color for her outfits, it also signifies a 'pure or innocent love' in the language of the flowers (at least according to the store owner.)

He was approaching the dorms as he saw his snow angel walking by. Jaune raised his hand and made to call out to her when the girl herself said, "Neptune!" Instinct led to him planting himself to the wall as she moved beyond the corner to approach the blue-haired boy she had called out.

As he peeked around the corner of the wall his heart began to drop. Weiss, who tended to avoid overt displays of sweetness, had her hands behind her back and was almost meekly looking into Neptune's eyes.

 _'...I never had a chance, did I?'_

Jaune's thought was confirmed when she asked, "I know this is a little unorthodox, but would you... like to accompany me to the dance tomorrow?" The blonde couldn't stand there for another second; he promptly walked away, dropping the rose he was holding onto the ground.

The bulk of Saturday passed in a blur. Without classes to distract him, all he could do was inwardly mope. His team was still going so he couldn't not go to the prom, but he wasn't particularly looking forward to watching Weiss and Neptune together on the dance floor.

Thankfully, by six o' clock he had made his peace. Yeah, he had wanted to go with her, but what mattered is that she enjoyed herself.

With that resolve he put on his tux and walked to the dance with his team, every one of them looking good. According to Nora, Coco had expensive taste and it apparently took them a while to settle on her pink one-piece dress. Phyrra had on a beautiful, long red dress on, and Jaune had to fight the urge to gawk.

The boys were fitted in black tuxes with colored trim. Ren had once said that guys have a much easier time with clothes than women do; after all, they don't have to wear high heels, and sizes aren't variables that change depending on the brand. But after all is said and done, well dressed girls look exponentially better than guys do, with the case in point being his friend and partner Phyrra.

Just as anyone could have expected, heads immediately began to turn as they walked into the hall the dance was taking place in. The blonde leader made a beeline to the punch bowl, determined to avoid embarrassing the others as much as possible. When he got there two people were already manning the table: Ruby, in a red and gray dress that looked odd without her signature hood, and Velvet, who was taking photos of everybody present. She was wearing an elegant but modest brown dress, pretty close in color from her daily wear. Instead of her usual box camera, she was using a considerably more modern digital camera.

Jaune started talking as he grabbed a cup of juice, "Hello there, my fellow socially awkward folk. How's the view from here?"

"Pretty good," chimed the rabbit. "I've always been too shy to actually dance, so I use times like these to sell pictures. Photography is an expensive hobby, after all."

Ruby followed with, "I have no excuse to fall back on; I just really hate these lady stilts."

"I consider myself to be a decent dancer," quipped Jaune, "but I make up for that by having terrible luck with women." He raised his cup into the air as a mock cheer. "To the three musketeers." Both of the ladies clicked their glasses to his and they all took a drink.

After a moment passed and she had snapped a few more pictures, Velvet said, "I'm sorry my advice didn't help you, Jaune. You should be on the dance floor having fun instead of being stuck with the wallflowers."

He shook his head. "You don't have to apologize for anything. I caught Weiss asking that Neptune guy to the dance, and I didn't want to be 'That Guy' that causes a big fuss about things he shouldn't. At least she came with somebody she liked."

Red's head tilted to the side. "What are you talking about, Jaune? Weiss didn't bring anybody here." She pointed to a row of chairs, where the heiress sat looking rather solemn. "She said something about being too busy to worry about having a date."

To Velvet's eyes, the look on Jaune's face was that of somebody who had been slapped. The boy quickly peered around the room and, finding the person he was looking for, set his cup down and made his way through the crowd.

As a lifelong photographer, she had developed a sixth sense of sorts: the ability to find truly unique moments and capture them through her camera lens. That instinct was screaming at her to follow Jaune, and she obeyed without a doubt in her mind. He tapped the shoulder of a blue-haired boy and spoke in a low tone, inaudible over the music even with her superior hearing.

The guy, Neptune she assumed, nodded his head and both of them walked out onto the balcony. Velvet followed at a distance, and when they made it outside she stuck only her head and camera out. Even with her rabbit ears, the cover of darkness was hiding her well.

"Hey, it's Jaune, right? What's up?" Neptune's voice was casual. He seemed to have no idea that anything was wrong.

Jaune did his best to keep his face neutral. "I just wanna talk, that's all."

Shrug. "Works for me, I guess. So, This party's pretty lame, huh? I mean, ballroom dancing. Pfft." Jaune didn't respond to that. "Cute girls, though, huh?"

Looking through the viewfinder, Velvet had only a heartbeat of warning before Jaune practically growled, "Is that all you think about!?"

"Huh?" Neptune's confusion was palpable. It caught the rabbit off guard, too, because she had never heard Jaune sound so... angry before.

"Do you even care about the girls you're hitting on? How they feel about you?"

Blue boy's hands went up defensively. "Whoa! Where's this coming from!?"

The pressure was rolling off of Jaune in waves. "How could you just turn her down like that?"

"Wait, w-who?"

Jaune's voice ascended to a complete yell. " **Weiss**!"

"I, uh..." He stammered as he searched for words. "it, uh... it just didn't work out, you know?"

"What? You think that you're too cool, too many other options? Weiss Schnee asked you to the dance. What in the world could possibly keep you from go-"

"I can't dance!"

Neptune was looking at the ground in shame. Both Jaune and Velvet had to take a moment to process the answer, and when the former spoke it was with a much calmer voice than before. "Beg your pardon?"

"I can't dance, man! I never could."

The anger was dissipating from within Jaune as he wrapped his mind around it all. "But... you're so cool!"

Neptune finally looked back up, though he still had a bit of shame in his voice. "Thank you. I try really, really hard."

 _'This guy that Weiss likes is kind of a putz.'_ It was at this point that Velvet turned away, tuned out of the conversation, and began to think about all the school activities she had... well, never been invited to.

People often forget that children can be the cruelest people of all. Even the ones that didn't hate faunus were scared to be caught 'hanging out with the freak'. So whenever a large school gathering or activity came around, like the middle school dances, nobody would ever ask her to go. That was the real reason she'd never learned how to ballroom dance: it's incredibly hard to do solo.

With a start, she realized that she had missed quite a bit of the talk and tuned back in. Jaune had his arms crossed and was in the middle of saying, "...just be yourself. I've heard that's the way to go."

"Yeah, but then-"

"Hey! You don't have to look cool all the time. In all honesty, if you could be a little less cool, I'd really appreciate it."

To his credit, Neptune seemed to really be listening. "Yeah, okay."

Content that he had gotten his point across, Jaune visibly relaxed. "Go talk to her. I guarantee it'll make her night."

"Thanks. You're a really cool guy, Jaune." Neptune approached Jaune, holding his fist out for a bump.

This was it! The picture she had done all this peeping for. Velvet brought her camera up as Jaune said with a laugh, "Alright, don't lie to my face."

The two of them bumped fists and Velvet furiously clicked the button, the shutter making quiet clicks as it recorded the moment for all time. When that brief moment passed, she looked at the pictures with a smile... that slowly faded. It was a good shot, no doubt, but her inner photographer was saying that this wasn't what it had been looking for. But if that's the case, then what really was it?

"Woah, careful there." Velvet jumped as she realized that Neptune, walking away from the balcony, had nearly walked straight into her. This led to Jaune coming over to see what had happened, and he froze when he saw the familiar rabbit.

"Velvet? What are you doing there?"

Her mind was freezing up. The camera was still in her hands with the picture displayed, so she couldn't lie and say she had just arrived. After trying and failing to come up with an excuse, all she could say was, "...Sorry, I followed you out here."

Jaune didn't immediately respond to that; instead, he looked at Neptune and said, "You can go, man. I think she wants to talk to me." The boy responded with a wave. He wasn't about to interrupt whatever this was.

Silently, they both walked to the edge of the balcony and looked over the school grounds. The air between them was thick and awkward, and all Velvet wanted to do was run. But before she got the chance Jaune asked, "So how much of that did you hear?"

There was no point in fibbing. "All of it. I'm sorry that I eavesdropped like that, Jaune."

He waved a hand dismissively. "It's okay, I'm not mad or anything. I just kind of wanted to take this whole thing to the grave with me."

That line confused her. "If I may ask, why's that?"

"Think about it: here I am giving advice to the person my crush asked out. Not exactly a cool thing to do."

She shook her head. "I disagree. Jaune, just now you showed a level of maturity most people our age lack. You put the feelings of others ahead of your own, and you did so without any kind of ulterior motive. It's not like you wanted anything from him, right?"

"Aside from honesty, not really." He looked up at the fragmented moon. "I just wanted to make sure that Weiss hadn't had her heart broken for a stupid reason."

"That's what I mean. You should be proud of what you did," Velvet turned to face him with a smile, and Jaune looked her right in the eyes as she said, "and if you can't do that, then just know that I'm proud of you." For the briefest of moments he thought she might be saying all of this out of pity, but as he met her gaze he saw only respect in her eyes; and in the light of the moon, those eyes were beautiful.

He broke the eye contact with a full blush on his face. "Thanks...again. You know, you've cheered me up twice in as many days. I get that you're on the shy side, but how does a great girl like you not have a date to this dance?"

"Even if I were to look for a date, you'd be surprised at how hard it is be to be noticed when you're standing beside Coco."

"That's fair. She always makes a big impact with her styles." They shared a laugh and went back to their sky viewing. The awkwardness in the air had disappeared, replaced by a comforting warmth. After a few moments passed like that he slowly said, "So this... may sound weird coming from me, but would you like to dance?"

"I... Would love to dance, but," Velvet raised an eyebrow, "I was never taught how to ballroom dance, although my photography has at least showed me where to put my hands."

His face broke into a smile. "I'll gladly teach you, but you might have to put down the camera first."

"Oh! Right. Um... I don't want to step on it or have it fall down, so where should I...?"

A female voice came from the entryway. "I'll hold onto that for you." Coco stepped into the moonlit night with a small smile, wearing a black dress with two gold necklaces.

Jaune gave a snicker. "Seems like everybody is eavesdropping today."

"Maybe, but it was Ruby who suggested where I could find you two, so let's just blame her this time." As she got close she held up an open palm. "Let me carry that, Velvet. I've danced plenty for now, and it's your turn."

The rabbit had a rather flushed face as she handed over her camera. Coco stepped away and said, "Just pretend I'm not here. Do your thing, kid."

Jaune nodded and said, "Sure thing. I can't hear the music that's playing from here, so let me find a playlist online." His scroll was already set up on the school Wi-Fi, so he brought up his BluTube app and searched for a while. Finding a selection of songs he liked, he hit the play button and set his scroll down on the stone. "The first song that will play isn't your standard ballroom waltz; but it's the first one my sisters had me dance to when I was learning, so it just feels right."

Chopin's 'Nocturne op. 9 No. 2' began to play. The duo brought one hand up to the other's shoulder and extended the other pair of hands out in the proper grasp. Jaune led as the gentle piano whisked them away to a world all of their own. Velvet was nervous for a moment, but her partner's firm confidence convinced her that any mistakes in movement would be forgiven.

To Coco, the scene was mesmerizing. Two people acting as one in motion, a smooth flow carrying them from one corner of the balcony to another. Just as they approached the center, some instinct urged her to take a picture.

 _Click!_

A glance at the picture preview revealed an image straight from a painting: a man and a woman lost in each other, with the beautiful moon just over their heads. This shot had captured the very essence of its subjects, reflecting the serenity with utmost perfection. She gave it a name in her head: 'The Rabbit On The Moon.'

The world would keep spinning tomorrow, with their duties as huntsmen-in-training urging them forward into adulthood; but tonight, only this moment mattered. For throughout history, every great love started with just that...

...a moment.


	2. Chapter 2 (edited)

A/N: Thank you all for your support for this story. As you can see, I've decided to continue the story of our favorite Moonbunny ship. Looking for an idea Beta.

(Question: what is the actual ship name?)

Please leave a review, and for those of you waiting for me to update ToN... I'm sorry!

Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by screwattack. (beat) I mean, rooster teeth.

xXxXx

The library at Beacon was a haven to the studious. The wealth of knowledge available just at one's fingertips gave comfort that any problem regarding any subject matter in the world could have a printed, reasonable solution. Combine that with the four o' clock sun beams pouring through the windows and you have a perfectly relaxing environment for your continued learning.

Now, if you hated studying...

"Why do we have an exam for Professor Oobleck right before the Vytal festival tournament?" Ruby's voice was muffled by the book on the table, her forehead pressed against it in attempt to learn by osmosis. "We should be training for next week, not studying the migration of people after the Great War."

Her neighbor, Pyrrha, put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "The exam is tomorrow, so at least we'll have Saturday and Sunday to get ready." She paused. "Weren't you just saying earlier that your team was more or less ready anyways?"

Nora chirped up, "We all are! But who wants to be doing this stuff right before something as big and awesome as the tournament?" Teams RWBY and JNPR had shoved two tables together and were attempting to study with varying results. Weiss was mumbling under her breath to drown out the distracting talk, Blake and Ren were quizzing each other to check their understanding, and Pyrrha had finished her review earlier, staying with them to give support where it was needed.

On the flip side, Yang and Nora had resigned themselves to their fates and started playing paper football while Jaune had his book opened flat, gazing into page 458 as if he could make it catch fire with his mind.

 _'My brain is done here.'_ He could only sigh as he closed it with a resounding thud, rising from his chair with a stretch. "Welp, I think I've studied all I can for this one. I'm gonna head out now, thanks for the help guys."

Yang spoke out of the corner of her mouth, not looking away from the goal post Nora was making with her fingers, "Gonna go find your chocolate bunny, Jaune? Pretty gutsy to have an evening date set up for the day before an exam."

He laughed as he put his school supplies into his bag. "First, we're doing a little test of her Semblance with Crocea Mors, so I'm not sure it's much of a date. Second, our actual date is Saturday morning, and no I'm not telling you where. Third, she isn't nearly tan enough to be regular chocolate. Maybe white choclate, but that's too sweet for me. And fourth..." Jaune's fingers snapped as he tried to remember his train of thought. "...I don't know where I was going with that one. Anyways, see you all later."

Giving a small 'hup' as he lifted the bag over his shoulder, Jaune walked out of the library with a soft smile on his face. Everyone minus the focused Weiss waved their goodbyes, but as Blake turned back to her notecards she caught sight of Pyrrha's face: it was subtle, but the champion looked forlorn, her gaze focused on where Jaune had walked out. Nora reached a hand over and was about to give Pyrrha a comforting squeeze when the paper football went flying by her head.

Yang snickered, "Well would you look at that: your hand moved and the goal got bigger."

"You cheater!"

xXxXx

Yatsuhashi stared evenly as his teammate and her companion got themselves ready across the training room arena. Jaune had only his shield deployed while Velvet held no weapon in her hands, camera box secured firmly to her hip. At the sound of Coco whistling, the pair closed half of the distance to their armored friend and jumped as high as they possibly could.

As they reached the peak of their jump arc Velvet spawned a replica of Crocea Mors from her box, the hard light materializing into a stable form in only a moment. Both of them shifted their full weight over their shields, bracing for the inevitable impact with the green giant. Yatsuhashi met their drop with the full force of his sword, making sure that he clashed with them evenly. The pair felt their bodies jolt from the impact, but maintained as much pressure as they physically could.

A heartbeat passed...

With a loud grunt, Yatsuhashi forced both of them up and away. After tjey landed, Velvet quickly moved to compare her shield against Jaune's. They bore nearly identical dents in the middle, making the Faunus smile as her imitation faded from existence. "So my created shield _is_ just as durable as the genuine object. That's good to know." She closed the camera up as she continued, "Up until now I only worried about how much damage it could do before dematerializing, but this means I have a good defense available if I need it. Thank you so much for helping, Jaune."

Her honest thanks made Jaune grin. "No problem, but are you sure you don't need more than a few copies of Crocea Mors? You can snap away all you'd like."

She shrugged as she answered, "I would if I could, but I only have so much space in the storage unit. It's important to have a variety in case any situation changes for the worse."

"Ah, I can understand that."

Coco and Yatsuhashi joined them as they began walking back to the dorms, the former asking, "Curious question, Arc. I get that your sisters taught you how to dance, but did you learn anything else from your family?"

Jaune's eyebrow went up questioningly. "I don't mind answering, but this is an... odd time to bring that up. Why do you ask?"

"You and Velvet are having your first legit date this weekend right? You'd do well to get a lunch ready for the trip, since our Velv is useless at cooking." Velvet made an embarrassed swing at Coco, who lithely dodged as she laughed.

The fashionista wasn't wrong about the date. Between the Breach and the chaos that ensued afterwards, the pair hadn't been able to spend any time together outside of Beacon's walls. They were both anxious to get away from the prying eyes of their teammates and enjoy each other's company.

Jaune gave a chuckle. "Sounds like a plan. If we're going to be taking pictures around Vale, we'll need something portable to munch on." He looked over at the rabbit. "To answer the question, I learned some easy dishes. Any preferences, Velvet?"

She pondered it as her flush faded. "Not really, though sandwiches might be the easiest to eat on the fly. I'm more concerned that you'll get bored walking me around just for photographs."

"It's alright, you agreed to go with me to..." Jaune stopped talking and looked around, dropping to a whisper when he started back up, "...the movie I wanted instead of yours."

Velvet giggled as she replied, "Remind me why we're being secretive about that again."

"Simple: Yang and Nora have been a little too interested in our plans. Ren told me that Nora had been considering following me out of Beacon, and Yang's dropped a few too many 'Oh, by the way, I heard about this awesome place you could take Velvet.' I wouldn't be surprised if they posted spies around campus just to listen to us talk."

Coco did something between a laugh and a cough, pointedly looking away from them as they got wrapped into their own discussion. Yatsuhashi chuckled and remarked, "So this is what it feels like to be the dreaded third wheel." He raised his voice to get the couple's attention. "This is our stop Jaune, unless you're wanting to come into our dorm room."

Velvet and Jaune both jumped a hair, so engrossed in talking that they almost went right past Team CFVY's humble abode. The latter gave a wistful smile. "Sorry about that. See you at ten, Velvet?"

"Yep." She answered, emphasizing the 'p' with a pop. "Good luck with Oobleck's exam!"

"Did you have to remind me?" They separated with smiles and waves, Velvet heading straight for her desk-slash-workbench. She gently placed her camera in the middle and began sorting her newest additions by weapon styles.

After taking off her purse, Coco noted that Fox was MIA. "Is he still hanging out with Team BRNZ? What an odd group for him to get so buddy-buddy with."

Velvet shrugged without looking away from the table, her hands slow and steady as she performed maintenance on her beloved tool. "Apparently he's been getting along with their sniper. I think her name was May...?"

After several minutes of effort Velvet felt comfortable enough with her work to let it rest for a bit, and as she made to stand her eyes fell on a picture frame that was perched on the corner of the desk. Within the frame was the picture that Coco had snapped at the dance, two teenagers happily performing for the moon behind them.

 _'It was just... so nice to feel that way.'_ Her cheeks began to warm at the memory. For the duration of those songs they'd been in a world of their own, worries forgotten for what felt like eons.

Of course she wasn't naive enough to think the bond between them was truly love, at least not yet. Watching her parents through the good and bad times of their marriage had taught her that love was not only about feelings, but _actions_ as well. Understanding your partner to the best extent that you can, showing affection to comfort or please them, accepting their faults while still addressing them. The list goes on.

She and Jaune had barely managed to spend time alone beyond studying in the library, but he had already shown himself to be a great listener. This date would be a good chance for them to learn more about each other. Speaking of which...

"By the way," Velvet said as she rounded on Coco, "I actually can cook a bit, and you know that very well. Why did you lie to Jaune?"

Coco gazed back with a small smirk. "He needs to put some extra effort towards this date. Trust me when I say that, outside of unique or special occasions, the first outing provides crucial insight into how they'll approach your future together. Does he dress appropriately, or stick to what he wears everyday anyways? Will he actually remember to prepare food, or will the exams help him conveniently 'forget?' You'll thank me later." The bunny couldn't form a counter-argument, so she let the topic drop.

Velvet moved the frame away from the corner so it wouldn't fall off the desk. She was looking forward to Saturday so very much.

xXxXx

The one o' clock bell began to chime throughout Beacon, gently encouraging students to leave the classrooms and continue about their day. If they had the energy to.

Prof... Doctor Oobleck was zooming around the room, picking up the answer sheets to the exams. "Time is up, pencils down. I said down, Mr. Thrush. I trust that two hours was long enough for most of you to answer all of the questions. Remember, there were different versions of this test around the room; so if you cheated off of your neighbor, you likely just failed this exam."

Nobody was listening as they gathered themselves for the escape to freedom. Oobleck either didn't notice or didnt care to comment. "For those of you who _won't_ be taking a remedial exam, I recommend either focusing on your tournament preparation or relaxing in your dorms. Farewell!"

RWBY and JNPR were almost crawling out due to their mental exhaustion. Without saying a word they liflessly marched to the cafeteria and sat across from each other, not even Nora capable of being enthusiastic after that ordeal.

Which is why Jaune suddenly jumping up scared them all out of their skin. "Crap, I need to get working on lunch!"

The group at large regarded him with tired eyes, but Ren was the first to make sense of the scene. "Lunch for right now, or for tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. I'm gonna get some sandwiches and light snacks together."

Jaune was interrupted by Ruby's stomach growling. She looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Jaune, we would all love you forever if you'd make food for us, too."

He had a rueful smile as he said, "Are you even allowed to pledge the eternal love of your teammates?" Ruby gave a sideways glance as her compatriots' stomachs began to grumble.

"Maybe mine and Yang's. But I will give Weiss and Blake convincing arguments for sure!" The latter two rolled their eyes at the scene, but did not appear to be arguing with the idea of a free lunch.

Nora raised her hand and exclaimed, "We of JNPR love you, fearless leader! So please put that communal kitchen to work!"

Jaune chuckled and started making his way to the back of the hall. Pyrrha rose from her chair and said, "I'll help, Jaune. We're just making some sandwiches, right? There's no need to make you do it alone."

"Thanks, Pyr. Time to feed the army." There were two parts to the Beacon cafeteria: the employee kitchen, where the staff makes the daily selections, and the communal kitchen, where students were allowed to create their own. The supplied ingredients for the latter weren't extravagant, but were varied enough to fit any dietary needs.

Jaune pulled out 2 loaves of bread and began slicing them up while Pyrrha slipped into the storage-room-sized fridge. After a moment her voice called out, "They have turkey slices, salami, lettuce, tomatoes... Out of all of the cheeses, it looks like."

He answered while setting down the knife, "Turkey slices? The supermarket pre-sealed kind?"

"Yep."

"That'll work, I guess. Any fish for Blake?"

"There's a piece of paper that says 'shipment coming in Sunday.'"

The answer gave him pause. "Vale has its own docks and fishermen, why would it take until Sunday to get more in? Alright, everyone gets turkey today. Bring those veggies, too."

The next few minutes were spent in relative silence, Jaune focusing on cutting tomato and lettuce slices while Pyrrha put two turkey slices on each of the sandwiches. They were assembled and put on paper plates, neat but not quite uniform (Jaune said he'd eat the end piece of the bread), and he set a few aside for tomorrow. He examined his lunch box and mumbled, "Should I put in cookies or veggie sticks? Hmm... cookies, definitely. Gonna have to head to the store today to grab them."

"You must really like her." Pyrrha's voice brought him back to the present. "Are you looking forward to your date that much?" When Jaune sought the affection of Weiss, he always had that goofy grin and came up with elaborate schemes. The Jaune that stood in front of her was much more subdued, for lack of a better word.

He spoke slowly as he answered, as if feeling out the words as they left his lips. "It was Velvet that told me to keep things simple, to avoid gimmicks; yeah it was for asking out Weiss, but I've kinda figured out that it can apply to being in a relationship, too. I want her to see me for me. I'll practice my singing for another time since Vale does have karaoke bars." Jaune started to laugh, but stopped as he looked at Pyrrha's face. She wore an expression of sorrow, not quite looking him in the eye. "Pyrrha, what's wrong?"

A moment passed without a word. She was smiling when she finally looked up at him; but rather than the smile of his partner Pyrrha, it was the smile of Pyrrha the Champion: professional and distant. "I'm fine, Jaune. Here, I'll go ahead and take their food out. Come out when you're done." She loaded the plates onto a tray and walked out, leaving a perplexed Jaune in the kitchen.

"Did I do something wrong?"

x


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: So in two chapters Picture Perfect has exceeded the number of favorites that Tales of Neo has. On the one hand, I'm so grateful for the love this Moonbunny story is getting. On the other hand, it makes me wonder how I can do ToN better. Writer problems, eh?

Special thanks to SabletKnight for letting me bounce some ideas off of them. You have him/her to thank for this story not going _extremely_ dark in its tone; romance always comes with some amount of hurt, but I had been contemplating taking this fic somewhere pretty bad. Check out their stuff, it's pretty good.

I'll be calling this ship Moonbunny from now on, by the way.

Shorter chapter this time, but the following one should be a proper length.

No disclaimer. You get it by now.

xXxXx

The remainder of Jaune's Friday could only be described as awkward. After he returned from shopping Pyrrha steadfastly refused to look him in the eye, and any attempt at getting her attention resulted in her rapidly finding something to do. Jaune asked Ren if he knew what was going on, but the only answer he got was, "Jaune, sometimes people just need some time to themselves. Trust in her, okay?"

Ren was like a brother to him, but that didn't mean Jaune always understood him.

Ultimately, team JNPR went to bed without a word spoken between leader and champion. Between his nerves about his date with Velvet and worrying about his partner, sleep escaped from Jaune until well past midnight.

At eight o' clock his scroll alarm went off, urging the blond to rise from his bed for a very important meeting. Jaune was first to wake up this morning, though he did see Ren pop up a few minutes after he did. He hopped into the hot shower to wake up completely, a necessity due to his grogginess. Post-shower he walked to his clothes drawer and began comparing outfits.

Initially he was going to go with his trademark hoodie and jeans, just without his armor; but, in the back of his mind, he had a nagging sensation that he didn't want Velvet to see the Pumpkin Pete picture on his chest. Not that he was worried about her being a rabbit Faunus, just that a cute bunny doesn't leave a great first date impression. Ten minutes of deliberating later, Jaune stood in a blue button-up shirt and jeans, packed lunch in one hand and hoodie wrapped over the other.

"It's Fall, it could get cold." He could only sigh when he realized that he was only justifying it to himself. Ren and Nora were awake and talking to each other, but Pyrrha was still in bed with her head covered.

Jaune made to walk over to his partner, but as he took the first couple of steps he felt a hand grip his shoulder and stop him cold. The offending limb spun him around and he found himself almost nose-to-nose with Nora. "Jaune, we need to talk. Outside." Her voice was quiet yet firm, and Jaune could only obey as she dragged him out of the room and around the first corner in the hallway.

After they stopped Nora took a moment to compose herself. Jaune didn't dare to say a word due to how serious her expression was compared to 'Normal Nora.' When she finally did speak it was done slowly, deliberately. "Jaune, _please_ , leave Pyrrha to us today. I know you're worried about her, but you can't help her right now."

He felt an unfamiliar anger rising within him. His voice was louder than he meant for it to be when he replied, "Why? Why can't I help her? She's my partner! Can't you or Ren speak clearly about this!?"

Nora strengthened her grip on his shoulder. "Jaune, who are you going to be with today?"

 _'Huh?'_ "Velvet, obviously."

"Precisely. You and Velvet are feeling each other out today, and because of that you owe her your full attention. Velvet deserves that much."

"Why does that exclude helping Phyrra?" Jaune was starting to get exasperated. Everybody seemed to know something that he didn't, and it was driving him crazy. "Did I accidentally do something to hurt her? Because as far as I'm aware, nothing's changed between us."

Nora didn't answer right away, hanging her head as she tried to find the right words. It wasn't her place to tell him about Pyrrha's feelings. "Just... give us twenty four hours, or even just until your date is done and you get back. Pyrrha will tell you everything she needs to, I promise." A bemused smile crossed her face, catching Jaune off guard. "I think we can talk some sense into her. So go; have fun. Make a story or two that you can tell us about later."

Jaune examined her face and saw nothing but sincerity. After a moment of silence he nodded and let his emotions settle down. "Alright then... I'm trusting you on this." His stomach chose that moment to make its presence known, grumbling loud enough for both to hear. "I probably need some breakfast before I go."

Nora giggled as she finally released her grasp on him. "I'll go get Ren so we can meet up with you there. Save me some pancakes!" He laughed in response and they separated, Nora running full tilt around the corner to their dorm room...

 _Thud!_

...crashing straight into a girl with black hair, sending her back a foot before she fell. "Oh my goodness, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" Nora put her hand out to help the girl up but of her companions, another girl with short, green hair, was already assisting her.

"I'm fine, just please watch where you're going." The raven beauty's speech was polite but her voice was curt, clearly annoyed at the occurrence.

"I will, sorry about th-..." Her voice drifted off as she examined the final member of the trio she offended. "Hey, you're that Mercury guy that challenged Pyrrha and then forfeit!"

Said Mercury guy took the comment in stride. "What can I say? She was better than I expected her to be. I'd love to chat about it, but we were kind of headed somewhere important."

"Right, right. Sorry again, and I'll see you around!" Nora watched as the trio resumed their walk, quite casually for a group on an important errand. After they left she started to walk (slowly!) to her room, but stopped when she noticed a scroll lying on the ground.

 _'Whoops, did I make her drop that?'_

xXxXx

Breakfast was rather stiff with Pyrrha absent from the table, but nobody said anything out of respect for the situation. Jaune ate only the bare minimum of his meal to leave room for lunch later, eventually leaving for the bullhead into town.

Those left behind gave a collective sigh and nonverbally agreed to address the goliath in the room. Weiss took the reins with, "I'll be blunt: how bad is Pyrrha right now?"

Ren frowned as he answered, "She was still in bed when we came down. We tried talking to her yesterday but didn't succeed in cheering her up. The best thing would be to let her come around on her own; however, Nora promised Jaune that we would convince Pyrrha to talk to him by tomorrow."

Blake's bow twitched as she pondered it. "How likely is Jaune to push the issue at the earliest chance?"

"Very," replied Nora. "The whole thing is eating him alive since he doesn't understand what would cause this. If he knew the reason he might pull back, but..."

"It isn't our place to tell," finished Yang. Silence hung over the table for a moment before she continued. "I have an idea for kicking Pyrrha into gear, but I need you two to give me the 'go ahead.' It's a pretty blunt method."

Ruby regarded her sister with a surprised look. "I'm shocked that you're asking for permission; usually you would just do it and apologize later." She grinned. "You're finally growing up, Yang! I'm so proud of you~"

"Easy there, I am still the older sister here."

Ren and Nora met each other's eyes in a silent discussion. The former was almost timid when he asked, "When you say blunt, you don't mean that you're going to physically hurt her, do you?"

"What would punching her accomplish? No, it's something else; can't tell you what it is, though."

"Then I guess... we'll be leaving Pyrrha in your care. Good luck."

Yang smiled. "Thanks, I might need it. I'll text you all before I do it so that you everyone knows when to clear out."

"Text?" Nora tilted her head. She was forgetting something...

 _'Oh!'_

"Ren, that reminds me. We need to swing by Professor Ozpin's office soon."

He arced an eyebrow. "What do we need to see the Headmaster for?"

"Well, you see... I sorta kinda ran straight into one of the foreign exchange students earlier. She dropped her scroll, but she was long gone by the time I found it on the ground."

Her childhood friend put his face into his hands. "Do you at least know this person's name?"

"No, but she was walking with that Mercury guy. Long, black hair."

Ruby jumped up. "Ooh, that's probably Cinder. Their team is from Haven, as I found out when I... also ran into her." She put a finger to her lips in thought. "Maybe she has bad luck with people hitting her in the hallways."

Weiss sighed. "Of course you did that. Well, at least you know who it should be returned to, Nora."

"Yep! Come on, Renny; it's time to be responsible adults and make sure she gets this back."

Grabbing his hand, Nora began marching him straight to the Ozpin's office. Weiss couldn't help but mumble, "Maybe it's a good thing Yang is helping Pyrrha instead of Nora. That girl is a disaster waiting to happen."

xXxXx

"James, you know that I have always respected your opinion; but I cannot allow you to deploy the Paladins within the school grounds. What kind of message would you be sending to the people?"

"That they would be safe, Ozpin. My army will help them feel protected, and our enemies will fear our strength."

The atmosphere within the clock tower was thick as they argued. Both men were certain of their own statements, though they were at least civil in their actions. Just as Ozpin was about to respond to Ironwood his desk buzzed out a notification. Two students were on the elevator heading towards his floor.

"Some of my students are approaching, James." The general nodded and stepped to the side, allowing the new entrants direct access to their headmaster. Moments later they strolled in, with Lie Ren looking almost harassed as he was pulled by Nora Valkyrie. "Hello, students. What brings you to my office so early on a Saturday morning?"

Nora answered, "I... literally ran into a Haven student named Cinder earlier, and she wound up dropping her scroll. Having the teachers give it back seems like the best idea, so can I give it to you Professor?"

Ozpin couldn't resist a rueful smile. "Why certainly, Ms. Valkyrie. While I applaud your effort in returning their scroll, I must ask you to refrain from harming other students outside of the combat classes."

She nodded and handed the scroll to him. "Thank you sir, and I'll try." With a hop to her step she returned to the elevator, Ren right behind her without saying a word. Ozpin set the scroll down on the desk and gave his attention back to Ironwood.

"Look, Ozpin. Why don't I show you something?" Ironwood set his own scroll on the center of the desk, resulting in a three dimensional image of Beacon grounds appearing. "If we just set a couple Paladins down near the bullheads-"

 _Ding!_

Ironwood and Ozpin both glanced at the interrupting object, the just-turned-in device. James made to resume speaking, but Ozpin held up a finger to stop him. "Look carefully, James." He did as he was asked and was promptly stunned. On the scroll was an exact duplicate of what he was showing to Ozpin, complete with a picture of himself. Deciding to experiment, he made the diagram spin around; the copy mimicked his own device precisely.

"Ozpin, whose scroll was this again?"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: And the followers keep growing O.O Thank you all for staying tuned to the Moonbunny network, I am your host for tonight. We're a little light on the humor today, I must say. Lights, camera, drama!**

 **I am currently in the early planning stages for an AU fic featuring Jaune as a Bullhead pilot. Anybody know a good place to learn actual flight terminology and procedures? Also looking for a co-author or beta for said fic.**

 **Disclaimer: I have been playing a crap-ton of Zelda:BoTW. That is all.**

xXxXx

Jaune pulled at his collar as the bullhead landed in Vale and he stepped off. His motion sickness had gotten better compared to when he first came to Beacon, but it still felt a bit nauseating when he didn't have anyone there to talk to and distract him.

The clock on his scroll read '9:30'. Walking to the meet up spot by the docks would take about fifteen minutes, so he was actually early for the date; however, knowing that did little to settle his nerves. _'Focus on making a good first impression, Jaune. Wait, we kind of already know each other. Nevermind, just keep focused!'_

He was snapped out of his thoughts by his scroll buzzing. Jaune brought it up thinking it was Velvet messaging him, so it surprised him to see that it was from Yang.

[If I have you figured out like I think I do, Vomit Boy, you're probably freaking out about doing things right; but have some faith that you're gonna have a good time, okay? Velvet's a big girl, she can handle the normal you. Don't be fancy, be honest. Be you; and, if you can, start things off with a Yang!]

Jaune found himself smiling as he put his scroll away. _'I never thought I'd be cheered up by a pun_ , _but I can't help feeling better about this._ _Today_ is _going to be a good day.'_

Nerves? What nerves?

The few clouds that were in the sky reflected perfectly off of the coastal water, bringing to mind childhood dreams of being a pirate. It struck him as funny that he considered that to be a viable career choice when his job path now involved apprehending such ne'er-do-wells; well, and killing Grimm.

He arrived at his destination fifteen minutes before the hour, a small statue of a sailor with his stoic gaze aimed over the horizon. Velvet wasn't there yet so Jaune decided to plant himself on the statue's base and mimic the rusted hunk of metal, scrunching his face into something between 'contemplative' and 'scowl'. After a minute of maintaining that pose he heard the distinctive click of a camera shutter and couldn't help but laugh. "I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to resist!"

Velvet did her best to stifle her own laugh with the back of her hand. "It was just so funny! Most of us make fun of 'Ye Olde Sailor', not pose as him." She was wearing a modest red tank top with a blue sweater covering her shoulders and arms. Her jeans formed to her hips and legs without pressing tightly, giving her an all-around comfortable look. The camera (which Jaune could now identify as a DSLR) was worn with a strap around her neck. He only realized he was staring when Velvet continued talking, "It's good to see you, Jaune. I didn't make you wait, did I?"

"Nah, I only just got here in time to do the pose." His hand instinctively went to the back of his head as part of his nervous habit, but that didn't stop the smile from spreading on his face. "You look great, Velvet."

"Thanks, Jaune, but I think you look even better than I do." She stuck her tongue out playfully, not bothering to hide the blush on her face.

Jaune took the words a bit too far, however. "Oh, uh... did I overdress for this?"

"You're fine, I promise. I think Coco would have been angry if you _didn't_ look that good." Velvet put on an imaginary pair of sunglasses and did her best impression of her leader. "His job is to make you look good, Velv. If he underdresses for this I'll have to set him straight."

The air between them was silent for a moment, only to be broken by them both cracking up with laughter. Some people walking by gave them odd looks, but neither of them could bring themselves to care. So what if they looked weird? They were having fun.

The pair walked along the docks, going anywhere and nowhere as they chatted. Eventually, they wound up in one of Vale's quieter parks. Velvet would occasionally stop and snap a picture of the scenery, but the silence that would occur at those times was comfortable rather than stiff.

The conversation was great, until...

"Please tell me your family has a picture of you with that ponytail, Jaune."

"I ordered them to delete it, but I'm pretty positive that Violet printed out a copy first. I caught Dad laughing over it once." Jaune stopped and stared into the distance, seeing something that wasn't there. His mind began to replay memories he didn't want.

 _"Sorry, son. I know I said we would train today, but I've got some errands to run."_

Naturally, Velvet noticed. "Jaune? What's wrong?"

"It's just..." He lowered his head in thought. "I was thinking about everything that's led me to this point. Coming to Beacon, being a team leader. Have I told you what my family said to me before I left for initiation?" She shook her head. "They said 'It's okay if you mess up, Jaune. We'll be waiting for you here!' My own family didn't have faith in me, and it... It hurt pretty bad knowing that."

Velvet took a moment to find a nearby bench and walked over to it, gently pulling him by the hand. As they sat down she asked, "Why wouldn't they believe in you? You work as hard as anybody else in your year, they must have seen that as you trained in the time before Beacon."

Jaune paused before answering. How much could he tell her? Would Velvet still want to be involved with him if she knew what he did to sneak into the school? Idly, he took out his scroll and began fiddling with it. His eyes snapped to a section of the screen as Yang's message reopened.

[Velvet's a big girl-] His breath hitched. [-be honest.] Jaune took a moment to steel himself.

 _'Do or die time, I guess.'_

"I didn't have any kind of training. I never went to combat school, and my father refused to teach me anything about fighting. Hell, I didn't even know what Aura _was_ before initiation, much less have mine unlocked." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Velvet's eyebrows raise with an unasked question. His voice lowered to a whisper. "Velvet, I forged my transcripts to get into Beacon."

Velvet felt her mind go blank at that sentence; not out of anger or any such emotion, but sheer incredulity. _'He managed to fake his way into Beacon?'_ She was tempted to ask for details on the forging, but was dissuaded when she looked at his face. He was tense and looking down at the ground, like a child that expected to be yelled at. She decided to be as gentle as she could while she wrapped her head around everything. "How... did you survive initiation without your Aura unlocked?"

Simple answer there. "Pyrrha. She pinned me to a tree to catch my fall from the launch pad, and then unlocked my Aura as we walked to where the relics were. Without her being there to save me, I would've been paint on the forest floor."

"Okay. My next question is: who knows about your transcripts besides me?"

He still couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. "Pyrrha again; also Cardin, but that's another story."

"Cardin!?" The volume of her voice surprised both of them, and she flushed in embarrassment as she continued, "Why would Cardin know about that?"

"He overheard me telling Pyrrha. Apparently his room is the one right below the rooftop where she and I train." A laugh escaped from his lips. "Taught me to be careful of what I say and where I say it."

She was silent for a moment. "I see. My last question is- well, I want you to look at me, Jaune." He complied, expecting to see disappointment reflected in her eyes; instead, he saw... _caring_. Velvet's eyes held no judgement within them, and as he started to gawk she cupped his right cheek with her hand. "Why tell me? Why risk being expelled?"

A heartbeat passed, and then another. After several tense moments, Jaune covered her hand with his own without removing it from his cheek. It was with no small effort that he answered, "Because I don't want a relationship founded on a lie. I almost let it destroy my friendship with Pyrrha, so when I thought of you and how you'd feel if I covered it up... I just couldn't. I understand if you don't want to be with me, I-I-I-" He slapped his other cheek to stop his stutter. It stung a little. "I'm sorry I ruined our date with this."

"Thank you."

'. _..What?'_ Jaune felt his head reel backwards as he processed what she said. "'Thank you?' Why are you thanking me?" His line of questioning stopped when Velvet put her forehead on his, her eyes closed as she let her warmth flow into him.

"Thank you for caring enough to lay your heart open, Jaune. Thank you for being honest. Thank you for being forthcoming on a subject that would eat at any couple. I know that was hard on you, especially since you had no idea how I would react."

None of it made sense to him. "You aren't mad?"

"Oh no, I am angry; but not at you." She opened her eyes to meet his. "I'm mad that your parents would do so little to prepare you when they knew that life as a huntsman is dangerous. You weren't untrained just because you were lazy, right?" He nodded. "Then they should have done more. It's as simple as that."

The smile on her face reminded Jaune of his mother, wanting nothing but his happiness. He returned the pressure Velvet was putting on his forehead. The first words that tumbled out of his mouth were, "Have I told you how much I appreciate having you in my life, Velvet?"

Her laugh was quiet, but still heavenly in his ears. "You know what? I'm not sure."

"Well, I do. Thank you for everything."

"It's my pleasure, Jaune." She separated from him and stood up from the bench. "I'm feeling pretty hungry, and I just remembered that there's a shop near here with a window terrace. Coco said that they don't mind you eating food at the outside tables as long as you actually buy something while you're there." Velvet stuck her hand out as an invitation. "Interested?"

Jaune found himself laughing once again. "Sure thing, but a question first: when did you lose your wallflower side and get so energetic?"

"I didn't," she answered simply. "There isn't anyone around to see my shy side, and I'm in too good of a mood to be withdrawn around you."

He took her hand and they made for the mystery shop. "So if I want to make you happy, I just have to reveal my deepest, darkest secrets. Noted."

"Nothing that drastic is needed, promise. The fact that you told me all of that shows how much you care, and that's what I appreciate." She leaned against him while they continued walking. "I'm grateful that Pyrrha was there, because I wouldn't have gotten to meet you otherwise."

Jaune smiled and squeezed her hand harder. "I'll agree with that one. She's a great partner."

xXxXx

The message from Ren was short and simple. [Pyrrha is on the student dorm roof. Good luck.] Yang leaned her head against the dorm room's wall with a sigh. She wasn't looking forward to talking to Pyrrha. The champion was as stubborn as they come, even if her viewpoint on relationships was a bit skewed. All she was waiting for was the message from Coco-

 _Ding!_

Speak of the devil.

[The boy and the bunny have entered the pen.] It was code, of course. Coco had volunteered to be her little spy on the budding couple, which gave her time to do what she needed to do with Mistral's favorite redhead.

Yang reached the door to the roof in a matter of minutes. Beacon was simple to navigate, once you got the hang of it.

Opening the door, she was greeted with the sight of Pyrrha in her school uniform sitting on the roof's edge staring out towards Vale. She didn't respond to the newcomer walking up behind her, so Yang took the initiative as she sat down. "Do you always sit alone to think, P-Money?"

Her voice was soft yet steady. "No, but I'm not always in a 'sit and think' mood."

"Fair enough. Lien for your thoughts?"

"Only one Lien?" Pyrrha smiled in spite of herself, before resuming her solemn expression. "Do you think I made a mistake in regards to Jaune, Yang?"

There was no point in sugarcoating it. "Well, duh; but what matters is what you do now."

"He seems happy, Yang. Truly happy. How can I dare to get in the way of that?" Yang chose not to answer that one, which Pyrrha took to mean that she agreed. "I don't have to tell him anything now, so I'll carry the feelings in my heart in silence. The last two days have helped me... get over it, as it were."

She flashed her 'Champion' smile. "Don't worry, I'll go make up with my team in a bit. I owe them an apology for ignoring them when they tried to talk to me."

"You've really made up your mind about not saying anything? You're just going to separate yourself from Jaune as much as you can?"

"I have, and I will. He's a great guy, and he deserves to be happy."

"Well, at least we agree on one thing." Yang stood up and brushed the dust from her clothes. "I'm glad you talked about it openly. I'll make sure the others know that you'll be feeling better once you return to your dorm room."

"Thank you. I'm sorry you had to spend time with me acting as I am right now." Pyrrha turned to face her without rising from her position. "It's funny how I could talk with you about it and not my own team."

"Maybe you just needed time? Or I could just have that effect on people." Pyrrha started laughing at that one. "Now that you're smiling, I'm off to go get me a Jaune."

The laughter stopped. "Pardon?"

"Yeah, I've had Coco follow them around so that I know where they are at all times today." To prove her point, Yang took out her scroll and showed Pyrrha the message. "The 'Pen' is a store near the small park on the east side of Vale. If I'm going to interrupt, now is probably the best time to do so."

Pyrrha's brain struggled to keep up with the new information. "You're... going to try and get Jaune for yourself? Forgive me for being blunt, but you haven't given even a hint of interest in him before outside of the teasing you do with everyone."

Yang shrugged and continued explaining in her cheery tone, "I didn't want to get in your way. He's a good guy, and a great friend-slash-co-leader to Ruby. Now that I don't have to worry about stepping on your toes, I can go after him as I want."

Pyrrha simple stared at Yang, searching her face for any kind of joke or hidden innuendo. The latter simply smiled back, patiently waiting for the former to respond. "I... see. So you're headed out to crash their date?"

"Yep. Speaking of, I really need to get going. Later, cereal girl." Yang made to walk back inside.

The Champion's brain finally caught up to the present. "Wait!"

Yang paused and turned her head. "Yes~?"

"Shouldn't you wait until they get back,

at least? It's horribly rude to interrupt them like this."

"It's rude, yes, but relationships wait for no woman. Jaune is a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, so if I don't insert my presence now I'll be left in the Schnee-brand Dust. I made sure to message him earlier so that I would at least enter into his mind before I physically get there."

"What I'm saying is that however much you might love him it just isn't right to get in the way like this."

Yang put her hands in the air. "Woah, woah, slow down. What are you bringing up love for?"

"...What?"

"I'm sorry if I confused you, champ, but I didn't say anything about _liking_ him."

xXxXx

 **End of chapter reached.**

 **Cliffhanger . EXE activated.**

 **Reviews let me know how I'm doing, so please consider leaving one. Have a good day!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Allow me to ease your reading worries, friends: the drama present in the beginning of the chapter does come back around to humor and sweetness. Have faith in your favorite panda.**

 **Also, two chapters in two days holy crap. Why can't I pull this off all the time?**

xXxXx

Pyrrha remained silent for several moments in an attempt to control her breathing, but her temper betrayed her as her chest rose and fell with great huffs of air. "You're telling me that you want to 'get Jaune,'" she used air quotes for emphasis, "but that you don't have any genuine feelings for him?"

Yang shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

It made no sense. "Why?"

"Why what?"

It made _no_ sense "Why go after him if you aren't sincere in your actions?"

"Because I want to."

This whole scenario made _absolutely no sense_. "You're doing this a _whim?_ A mere flight of fancy!?"

"Not quite, P-money." Much to Pyrrha's confusion, Yang had the audacity to appear amused. "Saying that I'm doing this on a whim would imply that I haven't put any thought into this; on the contrary, I have put a _lot_ of thought into my actions. You see, Jaune is the kind of guy who'll be one hundred percent sweet to his girlfriend or wife. If I come back hurt, he'll take care of my wounds. If I show up at the house completely drunk, he'll hold my hair while I vomit in the toilet. My only issue, for lack of a better word, is that he doesn't have any excitement to him."

"What does excitement have to do with anything?"

"Everything, my dear!" She spread her arms wide, as if she were addressing a crowd during a performance. "There isn't a single part of Jaune that makes me want to run up to him and kiss him. There's no edge, no spark of any kind! So," Yang reached out and 'booped' Pyrrha on the nose, "I'm going to go make a man out of him. For the second time now, later!"

Yang spun around and almost hopped over to the metal door, pulling it open and-

 _Slam!_

-wincing as a black glow consumed it, yanked it away from her, and shut the entrance in her face. Yang slowly turned around to see Pyrrha finally away from the roof's edge, right hand forward as she used her Polarity...

...and her face was filled with _rage_. "You. Will not. Get close to him. I won't allow it!"

A smirk slid across Yang's lips. "Funny, I must've missed the part where you're still involved in this."

"Jaune is my friend, my partner!"

"Yeah-huh, but didn't you just say that you were going to keep your distance from him?"

Pyrrha walked over and stood less than a foot away from her, eyes boring into her soul. "What you're trying to do is beyond heartless. I would rather get hurt a hundred times over than allow you to have your way with him."

"See, here's the problem with that: there isn't a thing you can do to stop me. I _will_ get my hands on him, I _will_ mold him into the person I want him to be, and you, dear Pyrrha, have no say in the matter anymore." Yang's scroll beeped out a notification, and she brought it up to read it without letting Pyrrha see its contents. "Ah-ha, he just messaged me himself! Sending sweet nothings to one girl while on a date with another, how scandalous of him. Still, at least that makes my job easier."

"You...You!" The Champion's words failed as her anger soared to new heights. Yang simply met her glare and used her pointer finger in a 'Come at me' gesture. Pyrrha cocked her fist, ready to swing. "Raaagh-"

"Would **both** of you shut the hell up!"

The tension in the air collapsed and both girls spun to face the source of the noise. Cardin Winchester hoisted himself onto the roof from his windowsill. "How's a guy supposed to nap when you two are about to kill each other over a dude?"

Pyrrha huffed and turned away from him. "This really isn't any of your business, Cardin. I'm sorry for disturbing you, but Yang and I need to finish our 'discussion.'"

He gave a hearty grunt. "Ha. You mean Xiao Long intentionally making you angry is a discussion? I'm disappointed in you, Nikos. If I'd known that taunting you about Jaune would throw you off of your game, I would've done it during our spars in Goodwitch's class."

"Way to spill the beans, Cardinal." Yang could only sigh as Pyrrha whipped her head back and forth between them.

"Intentional? Yang, you were... pushing my buttons on purpose?"

Cardin answered for her. "Duh, it's one of the classic mind games. Xiao Long was testing your dedication, just like those action films that have 'secret tests of character.' She played you like a fiddle."

"Hold on," Yang interrupted. "How long were you eavesdropping?"

"I'm pretty sure I heard everything that was said. Don't glare at me like that, it wasn't on purpose." He pointed down at the building. "That's my team's dorm room, and I have the bed closest to the window. Jaune didn't tell either of you?"

"Tell us what?"

"That I found out about his little admission problem at the same time he was telling Nikos about it." Yang arced an eyebrow at Pyrrha, who shook her head in a gesture of 'not now.' "I'm going back to bed. You two kiss and make up, because if I have to come back up here I'm bringing my mace." With a small 'hup', Cardin climbed back down the wall and slammed the window shut.

Yang and Pyrrha simple stared at the direction where his head vanished. The former decided to put forward, "Well... that was a thing."

When Pyrrha addressed her it was with a much cooler head than before. "Why were you testing me? I don't understand."

"That's easy, Pyr: you weren't acting like the champion we know you to be at heart. The Pyrrha on the battlefield charges forward against all odds, forcing the situation to favor her. The you we've been seeing, however, has been passive. Meek. Letting the chips fall where they may instead of putting forth effort." Yang stepped forward and brought Pyrrha into a hug, like a mother would to her daughter. "I understand being scared of failure, believe me; but you never gave yourself the chance that you needed to win his heart."

Against her better judgement, she was allowing the blonde to console her. Her voice almost cracked as she said, "I let my fear control me."

"You did." Once again, Yang Xiao Long does not sugarcoat. "I'm sorry for riling you up, but I wanted to bring out your fire. When you heard me describe my scheme, you were hell bent on breaking me. That's the partner Jaune needs, even if said partner isn't involved with him romantically. To distance yourself from him on purpose would only hurt both of you in the end."

Pyrrha didn't respond to that, and it was only a moment later that Yang realized her clothes were getting dampened by quiet tears. She wasn't tacky enough to comment on it. In the end they stayed like that for upwards of ten minutes, blonde gently rubbing the back of red. Finally, after her last tears were shed, Pyrrha separated from her friend. Her face was puffy and flushed, but for the first time in two days she had a genuine smile on her face.

"Thank you, Yang. Truly."

"No problem, champ. Let's go inside, we need to throw a heartbreak party for you."

She couldn't help but giggle. "Heh. I'd really rather we didn't, but I don't have anything else to do today." They started to walk inside, until Pyrrha stopped and tilted her head quizzically. "Question: Did Jaune really message you, or was that just more of you pulling my leg?"

Yang answered by passing her scroll over.

[Hey there, Yang. Just wanted to say thanks for the encouragement earlier. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to confront a huge problem that was weighing down on me. You let me know if you ever need anything, okay? -Jaune]

The grin on Yang's face went from ear to ear. "You see, P-money? I'm the mom to both of our teams."

"I see that now." Things were going to be better; Phyrra could feel it in her heart. "Just don't try to spank me, or I'll have to bring you down a peg."

"Nah, wouldn't think of it." She took back her scroll and re-read the message. "I think I might cash in that favor of his for a kiss on the cheek."

"Oh, stop it."

xXxXx

Cinder was not having a good day.

It started with her collision with that Valkyrie girl, and spiraled downwards when she realized that her private scroll was missing. The dorm room that she shared with Mercury and Emerald was officially chaotic as they tried to discern where in Beacon it could be, with bed sheets strewn about the room in a futile attempt to find the missing object.

"Is that Neo girl looking where I told her to?" Her normally sultry voice was dripping with frustration. "It was just around the corner from team RWBY's room."

Emerald didn't dare to meet her eyes as she answered, "She checked there once already, ma'am, but we sent her back to make sure. Perhaps somebody picked it up already?"

"For your sake, _children,_ I hope not. Need I remind you that-" She was interrupted by a firm knock at the door. Her minions wordlessly spread to the edges of the room, tense and ready for anything. Cinder gave her hair a quick brush to straighten it out and made to answer the door. There was no way to fix the room's image, so they would just have to come off as slobs for now.

Opening the door revealed the presence of the hated Professor Ozpin, the enemy of her queen Salem. Not that she could let that show on her face. "What a surprise to see you, Headmaster. How may we help you?"

"Hello, Miss Fall. I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time." He glanced over her shoulder to indicate her mess.

"I'm afraid so, professor. You see, I lost something of mine earlier and have been unable to find it for several hours." To her ire, Ozpin stood in just such a spot that she couldn't see if anybody else was in the hallway.

'Caaw!'

Cinder turned her head to the window and saw that a crow had taken residence on one of the visible branches. In her peripheral vision she saw Mercury shooing it away. Ozpin's voice got her attention once more. "I believe I can help you there. One of my students told me that she quote 'ran into you' and asked that I return this to its proper owner. Is it yours?" He pulled a closed scroll from his coat pocket and Cinder felt her mind reel.

There was no way that this man didn't know what was on the scroll; but if he did, why would he offer to return it? Why was he standing in front of her room?

...and doesn't he normally have a coffee mug in his hand? All he had on him was the scroll and his cane. It was better not to antagonize him, she decided. "Thank you, professor, that's exactly what I was looking for." She accepted the item from his outstretched hand, but couldn't bring herself to open it and check in front of the enemy. "Was there anything else, sir? We need to bring our room into order now."

"No, that was all I came for Miss Fall. I hope your team has a pleasant day." Ozpin turned around and began to fiddle with his cane. Considering herself dismissed, Cinder began closing the door with one hand and opening her scroll with the other; she stopped both actions, however, when she saw the message displayed on the device.

[Thank you for choosing 'Orange Co. Scrolls' for your personal use! Before we get started, please input a nickname for this device to address you as.]

The last thing Cinder saw before her world went white was a small, cylindrical object being tossed into the room. Before anybody could react, said object exploded with a brilliant flash of light and a deafening bang, immediately overpowering her senses and dropping her to the floor. No sight or sound were present save the ringing of her eardrums, and when she attempted to stand up she felt herself get slammed to the ground. Somebody unknown grabbed her, brought her wrists together, and slipped a pair of handcuffs on her.

Her vision returned first, inviting her to despair at the situation. Glynda Goodwitch was holding Mercury and Emerald suspended in the air while Qrow Branwen and General Ironwood brought her to her feet and began pulling her out of the dorm. Letting her fury overtake her, she brought her cuffed hands up to use the power of the Fall Maiden.

Nothing happened.

No fire erupted from her fingertips. No lightning appeared to smite her enemies. The shock of it all must have appeared on her face, because Qrow leaned over and whispered, "Special handcuffs, darling. Made solely for you. Doesn't it just warm your heart to know how much we care?"

Her voice let loose a storm of insults, little of which was suitable for the common audience. The worst part of it all, she felt, was the perplexed looks on the students faces as they were marched through the school and into an Atlesian ship that was waiting for them.

That, and that damn smile on Ozpin's face as she was airlifted to her new home.

xXxXx

"Is it really one-thirty already? It feels like time is flying by."

"It tends to do that when you're having fun, Jaune."

Jaune and Velvet were relaxing at one of the tables the store offered. 'The Spotlight', which was the name of said store, turned out to be entirely women's apparel; but it didn't bother him, as he got to watch Velvet be a private model for the newest clothing lines. "Are you really happy with only the flower-print skirt? I could afford the yellow top you liked, too."

"I'm happy with what I got, honest. I'm not in tune with fashion the way Coco is, so I stick to simple outfits. Thank you for paying for it in the first place." Her smile was small yet radiant, and Jaune caught himself staring at her lips. "How long do we have before the movie starts?"

"It starts at two, so we should probably leave here within ten minutes. Gotta have time to get the popcorn. But first, why don't we get a picture of us together?"

"Oh! Good idea." Velvet looked at the other people inside the store. "Do you think one of the workers would mind taking it?"

"Only one way to find out." Jaune rose from his chair and found the first available attendant, a tall, older woman with blonde hair. "Excuse me, ma'am. My girlfriend and I were hoping you'd be willing to take a picture or two of us outside."

A broad, professional smile leaped onto her face. "Of course I will, dear!" Jaune led her to the terrace where Velvet stood with camera at the ready. "Go ahead and pose however you want to." The first picture was simple, with Velvet standing slightly in front of Jaune and his hand on her shoulder. The attendant frowned and said, "You two are so cute, so don't be acting all stiff. One more time."

The couple looked at each other, trying to come up with a good shot. They eventually shifted to where Jaune was sitting on a chair turned to the camera aand Velvet stood behind him, leaning over so that her face was side-by-side with his, her arms draped around his shoulders.

Then Jaune had an idea.

"Much better," said the worker. "I'm taking the picture in three, two, one..." On the count of one, he turned his head towards Velvet and kissed her on the cheek.

 _Click!_

"Ohh, that was just great! Here, have a look." The picture was almost glowing in their mind. Both of them were were blushing from top to bottom, but the pleasant surprise on Velvet's face and the smile on Jaune's as he just pulled away were highlighted by the city behind them. The midday sun, unseen in the shot itself, helped to make their expressions all the more visible.

They thanked the woman as they gathered their supplies, blushes as bright as they were a minute prior. It wasn't until they were on the sidewalk walking to the theater that Velvet addressed Jaune with a soft voice. "Next time, can you warn me before doing something like that?"

He grabbed her right hand, her only free one, with his left and brought her close. "I'll try, but do forgive me if I forget." They walked in that manner all the way to their destination, shifting only to allow space for other pedestrians to walk by. A small voice in both of their minds told them that it was going to be difficult to focus on the movie.

xXxXx

 **To head off the inevitable questions, the weapon used in Cinder's segment was a flashbang. Aura can protect people from damage, but the Nuckalevee fight in Volume 4 is proof that their hearing (and their other senses, I'm assuming) can be disoriented and used against them without the use of illusions. A military force like Atlas would be very aware of that, and would develop the technology to use it to their advantage.**

 **Please consider leaving a review, and have a nice day. Okay, you have to do the latter. :P**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Once again, thank you all for The support I've gotten for this story. It means so much to me that over a hundred people eagerly await each installment I put out.**

 **If you're curious about the opening conversation, it's based on one I had in real life. Spoilers for Zootopia.**

 **Happy Easter, Velvet.**

 **"You did _not_ just say that to me."**

xXxXx

The movie they went to see, Zootopia, wound up being a considerably more mature experience than they had expected; not because of any inappropriate material, but rather for how it handled difficult topics like stereotyping and interracial tension. Jaune originally chose it so that he and Velvet would have a cute little film to 'squee' over, but as they were exiting the theater they couldn't help but be wrapped up in a serious discussion.

"Do you think that Bellweather's 'I'm just a cute little thing' strategy would work in real life, Velvet?"

"Not with those exact words, but her plan relied on two things that do have real world potential for danger: Deflection of suspicion, and fear mongering. The deflection happened when she pinned the crimes on the mayor, who was a 'predator' in the eyes of the citizens; then, after he was put away, her henchmen used the toxins to terrify civilians into thinking that the predators were all going rogue, so to speak."

"Only to have it all brought down by an intelligent rabbit and her clever fox friend." Jaune had a bemused expression. "If you ever decide to be a detective, I could be the Wilde to your Hopps."

She gave a friendly scoff in return. "Please. I liked Judy and how she developed as a character, but I doubt she could face Grimm with a camera weapon. Huntsmen and huntresses are just so much cooler."

"Granted. Before this conversation goes into a deeper analysis of a kid's film, I have to ask: It's 4:15. Do you want to stay out longer, or go ahead and return to Beacon?"

Velvet took a look at her scroll to confirm the time, letting her body lean into his as casually as she could manage. "I would love to spend more time with you, but we probably should go back. Oum knows what trouble they've gotten into with us gone."

"It's so difficult being the only sane people on our teams." They met each other's eyes at that line and shared a private chuckle. They walked all the way to the bullhead in relative silence, speaking only to quote lines from the movie. It was an uneventful return trip, but neither of them minded; all the better for them to enjoy the presence of other.

Jaune messaged Ren and discovered that teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY were all having an early dinner together in the cafeteria, so they decided to join their teammates there

What Jaune did not expect was that he would be heading back out into Vale so soon.

"Hey, it's the couple of the day!" Yang called out to them as soon as they entered. They approached the table and saw the collective teams all munching on their varied meals of choice, with the sole exception of an absent Coco. "Jaune, could you go get the food for you and Velv? We all need to talk with her for a sec."

He rolled his eyes in spite of himself. "Probing for date details already? I'm not afraid to talk about it, you know."

"It's nothing like that; well, at least not yet. This is something else." The grin on her face promised only embarrassment for him.

"Fine, fine. I can see I'm not wanted. What do you want to eat, Velvet?"

"Hmm... It's Saturday, so they should have the chargrilled chicken salad. Please get me that and some apple juice."

He gave an intentionally sloppy salute. "Roger that. Don't have too much fun without me." Jaune disappeared into the food line, and Velvet sat between Nora and Phyrra.

"So what did you all want to talk about?" She didn't want to be discourteous, but the eyes of nearly everyone present were flicking back and forth between Yang and herself. It was quite unsettling.

Yang, for her part, seemed to largely ignore them. "I hate to bother you, but we need to borrow Jaune for the evening. Pyrrha and I are going to go drinking tonight and it'd be best if we had a sober guy come with us to act as a creep deterrent."

Her bunny ears perked up with suspicion. "You're going drinking... Some questions, Yang: First, why the weekend before the Vytal tournament? Second, why is it only you two that will be there? And last, but not least, why Jaune specifically?"

Yang didn't hesitate. "One: It's to help Pyrrha get over a heartbreak. Two: nobody else wanted to drinking with us." She paused to glare at her teammates, who all returned unrepentant gazes. "Third: Pyrrha's kind of been fighting with Jaune for the past twenty four hours, and wants to apologize."

Velvet settled back into her seat, only slightly eased of her worry. "Okay, I can understand wanting to apologize. I also get wanting to leave a sad relationship in the past, but..." She turned towards Pyrrha before continuing with, "that raises another question: why do you feel the need to ask me for permission? He's your partner, of course you can rely on him to get past a bad time."

All present turned their eyes towards the red-head while she met Velvet's questioning gaze. "I'm asking you permission... because of who it is I'm getting over."

"I'm not sure I unders-" She stopped speaking and looked around the table as the pieces clicked into place. Weiss, Blake, Fox, Nora, and Blake were eying the food line where her boyfriend was; Ruby looked to be in the 'flight' section of 'fight-or-flight'; Ren and Yatsuhashi were now staring down at their trays, and Yang was whistling some unknown tune. "It's Jaune...? That's who you're getting over?"

Pyrrha audibly gulped, and it struck Velvet that this was the first time she had ever seen the champion look _scared_. "Yes. Yes it is." Pyrrha Nikos, the invincible girl, was frightened of the retribution from an angry girlfriend. It would've been hilarious if she didn't feel so numb about the whole situation.

 _'How should I respond to this? How am I_ supposed _to respond to this?'_ Her lack of dating experience was leaving her baffled about where the boundaries should be drawn in regards to Jaune's partner, but as she searched for an answer she remembered what was said just earlier in the day.

 _"I'm grateful that Pyrrha was there, because I wouldn't have gotten to meet you otherwise."_

 _"I'll agree with that one. She's a great partner."_

"Alright, I've got your food and- why is it so tense here? What happened?" Velvet nearly jumped out of her skin as present-moment Jaune burst her thought bubble. The group was now focused on her as Jaune looked around for an answer. "Hello? Guys?"

What she said now would decide the future for not one, but two relationships going forward: Hers with Jaune, as well as Jaune and his partner.

No pressure, right?

"Everything's okay, Jaune. They were just asking me to loan you out for an evening. Thanks for getting the food, by the way."

"No problem." He set their trays down, Nora sliding down to make room. His own tray had nothing but a large turkey sub, which he took a bite out of. "What do I need to be borrowed for?"

Velvet peered over at Yang and nodded. The latter smiled and spoke with a faux regal tone. "Pyrrha and I will going to a drinking establishment. You, Jaune, shall have the pleasure of escorting us, as well as protecting us from any unsavory men. Completely sober, I'm afraid."

Jaune snuck a look at his girlfriend, who gave him a consolatory pat on the back. He adopted Yang's accent and answered, "Oh, if it must be so. Very well, when shall we depart?"

The air around the table seemed to deflate as the onlookers released the breaths they'd been holding in. Fox reached into his wallet and slipped 5 lien into Ren's hand under the table, who gave a sly smile as he put it away.

"In thirty minutes time, good sir!" Yang was positively beaming, and Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle at the scene. "I recommend returning to your room and dressing yourself in a more casual manner; were we to be seen with you as you are, it would surely be a blemish on our appearance for the evening."

The teams separated after ten more minutes of posturing, Jaune taking bites of his food as he put on an intentionally funny display of missing Velvet for the evening, who could only rock back and forth with laughter. After the laughs faded, Jaune and Phyrra returned to their dorm room, reminding both of them that they hadn't talked since the day prior. They changed in silence, facing away from each other as the sounds of clothes rustling filled the void. After both of them slipped into their outfits, Pyrrha spun around to finally address her partner. "Jaune!"

"Yes!?"

Pyrrha was confused about Jaune's panic until she realized she'd more or less shouted at him. Closing her eyes and bringing her voice under control, she continued with, "I just wanted to say that..." Why was this so _hard_? "I'm sorry that I've been avoiding you. I got overwhelmed with everything, and...and-"

"Pyrrha." It was spoken so softly that she almost believed she had imagined it, but when she reopened her eyes Jaune was standing right in front of her. He put his hand on her left shoulder and brought her into a hug. "It's okay. I'm just glad you're talking to me now."

After a stunned moment, Pyrrha let herself fall into the hug as she wrapped her arms around his chest. His warmth permeated through his t-shirt, inviting her to stay as long as she needed. "Thank you. I'm sorry."

A chuckle rippled through his body. "I said It's okay, so don't apologize. If you want to talk about what overwhelmed you, just let me know, okay?"

"Of course. In the meantime, can I ask that you take care of me tonight?" She giggled, the sound muffled by his shirt. "I can't say that I know how I'll act after drinking a little."

"To be honest, I'm more worried about how Yang will be rather than you. Speaking of, we probably need to get going."

They made their way across the hall and knocked on RWBY's door, making a voice call out "Hold on!" Jaune took a moment to examine his partner's outfit: She was wearing a sheer white top with a pink undershirt, slight frills on the seams serving to hide what Jaune knew to be her crazily athletic form. You don't get to win four tournaments in a row without having strong, supporting muscles.

 _'Speaking of being fit, Velvet fights mostly with her legs when she isn't using her camera. I wonder how lean her leg muscles are?'_

Yang popped her head out of the door. "Sorry to keep you two waiting. Jaune? You might want to wipe that blush off your face; or do I just look that good?"

"Huh?" To his belated horror, he had a dopey grin and flushed cheeks from imagining Velvet's uncovered legs. He covered his face with his hands and turned away to hide his embarrassment. "Y-you do look good, Yang, I was just, uh, thinking of something else."

"Uh-huh, sure." Yang was wearing the same outfit she wore when her team faced Roman in the paladin. "Anyways, we ready to go?"

"Yes," answers Pyrrha. "I even managed to apologize already."

"Awesome, I was worried about things being awkward the whole time." Yang turned her head in towards her room. "I'm headed out girls. It's not too late to join us."

Ruby was the only one to dignify giving a response. "Just don't do anything we wouldn't do, Yang."

"But that's no fun!"

xXxXx

The bullhead dropped them off in central Vale, the sun just starting to dip below the horizon. As the trio stepped off Jaune asked, "Do you two mind if we make a stop first? I want to buy some stuff before the stores close."

Pyrrha and Yang looked at each other and shrugged, with the former responding, "What do you need to get, Jaune?"

"Just some stuff for a hobby I'm relearning. Nothing big."

The teaser in Yang flared up. "Oh? 'Nothing big', but you don't want to share it with us? If I had to bet, I'd say it must be a pervy hobby."

If Jaune had been drinking, he would've done a spit take. "P-pervy!? It's nothing like that, I-" He stopped as Yang began to double over with stifled laughter. "You know what? Just for that I really won't share it with you. Pyrrha, would you follow me for a sec? The store is right over there."

"Aw, don't be like that, Jaune." He walked away with red-head in tow, disappearing into the shop he pointed out. _'He actually left me behind!'_ Yang might've been offended, if she weren't proud of him having the guts to actually walk away from her. The pair remained inside for only a few minutes, and when they returned Jaune was carrying a loaded, black plastic bag and stuffing the receipt into his pocket. Sensing that Jaune wasn't going to tell her the truth, Yang slid into step next to Pyrrha and whispered, "So, P-money, what's in the bag?"

"Confidential, I'm afraid." She put a finger to Yang's lips so as to say 'Don't bother asking.' "You'll just have to find out when everyone else does."

"Come on, seriously?" She gave an indignant huff. "Fine. Let's just go to the bar now." Said bar was revealed to be 'The Oyster', a nondescript locale that featured eleven booths and ten bar stools. Despite being small (or maybe because of it) it was rather clean, so they had no issue picking out a booth that had a good view of the whole interior. Yang took one side, leaving the other side for them to share.

Yang looked perfectly in her element while explaining the following to her companions, "I know the owner from Patch, so we won't have any age limit questions here. Pyrrha, make sure to order some food to go with your drink, because you do not want to drink on an empty stomach." Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off as she continued. "Yes, I saw you eat plenty of food back at Beacon. Eat more. Jaune, order whatever you want besides alcohol. I'll cover you since I kinda took you by force today."

Jaune shrugged as he tied his plastic bag up. "Any recommendations?"

"I always get strawberry sunrises since they won't make them alcoholic unless you explicitly ask them to.'

"Sounds good to me."

Pyrrha turned the menu over in her hands. "I'm going to get the wings for food, but I don't know if I want beer or whiskey. Which would go better with the wings?"

Yang mulled the question over for a moment. "Get beer since this is your first time. The bartender here is a little heavy-handed on the whiskey here, we don't need you passing out in record time. Also, don't order the PBR."

"PBR?" The champion reexamined the beer section. "Pabst Blue Ribbon? Why not?"

"Because it's cheap and tastes awful! That's the stuff for when you're buying in bulk for frat parties."

An hour later, they were all having a great time laughing and sharing stories. Yang and Pyrrha were both two-and-a-half beers deep, while Jaune was content with his strawberry delight.

Pyrrha lazily eyed Yang over the rim of her glass. Her speech wasn't slurred but it did have some hesitation to it, as if she were piecing the sentence together as she said it. "Yang, you're telling us that out of all the guys in Beacon, not one of them has managed to catch your eye?"

The Dragon puffed her chest out proudly and answered, "Nope! My standards are high, and all have fallen short." She took a sip of her beer. "One guy came close, he was cute, but I don't want to go after the same guy as Ruby, you know?"

Jaune and Pyrrha both snapped to attention, the former asking, "Wait, Ruby has a guy she likes? Who is he?"

Yang paused.

A beat passed.

"Oh _shit_ , did I say that out loud? Guys, please forget I said that. She'll kill me."

"Yang?" Pyrrha reached over the table and covered Yang's empty hand with her own, offering a gentle smile filled with compassion and understanding. "Spill it."

Or not.

"Guys-" She sighed and decided to down the rest of her beer in one go. After finishing it she said, "Please don't tell anyone what I'm about to say, not even Ruby herself." They both made zipping gestures over their mouths. "She started crushing on a friend of hers a while back, but, being young and all, wasn't sure how to handle it at first."

Yang's hands worked the air as if she was trying to form the words with them. "It was a messy situation, too; some other girl liked him too, he liked a different girl, that girl liked some other guy. Chaos, I tell you, but baby sis made me proud." She couldn't keep the smile on her face from appearing. "We were talking about it one day and she said to me 'Sis, it hurts to say it, but I don't have a chance here. There are other guys out there, so I'll just have to remember him as my friend and first crush.' We hugged it out and ate cookies together, and it made me realize that even if she is younger than us, she is mature beyond her years."

"What happened with the guy," asked Jaune. "What's he up to now?"

"Oh, he's... around. Anyways, I'm going to go to the restroom. Be back." Yang practically sprinted away from the table, leaving a bemused Pyrrha and a thoughtful Jaune behind.

Jaune turned to her and asked, "Do you have any clues about who the guy might be?"

She gave a small laugh. "I do, but it isn't my information to share." Pyrrha downed a gulp of her own drink before she continued talking, sounding more sober than before.

"Jaune, the reason I was upset was... Have I ever told you what life was like for me before Beacon?"

"Funny, I said something similar just earlier today. Anyways, no, you haven't."

"I didn't have any real friends. I was lonely." She let the shock of the sentence set into him before she resumed. "I have been blessed with many things in life, such as great physical prowess; but I was on the top of people's minds for so long that they eventually put me on a pedestal. No longer was I Pyrrha the Girl, I was Pyrrha Nikos the Invincible. Someone to be held above others, unapproachable beyond my reputation; but then you came along."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." She laid her head on her left arm and looked up at him with a smile. "You didn't know me or my reputation. It was through you that I became friends with so many people. I have teammates that see me for me, and I can safely say that I'm happier than I've ever been. So when Velvet came and became the object of your affections... I felt like she was going to take you away from me. Like I was going to lose my partner."

Jaune didn't speak for a moment, letting her words wash over him. _'I matter this much to her..._ ' It was overwhelming to think of, but at the same time...

...she was just like him.

"Pyrrha, you're the first person to ever, and I mean _ever_ , have genuine faith in my abilities. You've pushed me to be better in all of the ways that matter in life, so I don't want to hear you say that I'm going away or leaving you. We're partners, through the best and the worst this world has to offer. As long as you'll have me, I'll be there to make up for the things you lack, and I know you'll do the same." He wrapped his arm around her body in a one-arm hug, her head still sitting on her arm. "Thank you everything you've done for me."

"Hmm." He reached his hand upwards and began rubbing the back of her head, causing her to release a contented sigh. They spent a moment in relative silence, which was broken by a now-sleepy Pyrrha. "Hey, Jaune...?"

"Yes?"

"...I love you, partner."

He chuckled and continued rubbing her head. "I love you too, Pyr."

xXxXx

 **Say it with me: daaaaawww.**

 **This is our closure to Pyrrha's feelings. She doesn't get the guy, but she understands that he will always be a part of life in the best way possible.**

 **Poll for the reviews: Should Yang spilling the beans on Ruby come back to bite her?**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: At the time of writing, there is a 2-2 tie for whether Yang should get in trouble for running her mouth, so the choice falls to me. I choose...**

 **There's some drama here, but not from the Yang situation.**

 **Important information in the endnotes.**

xXxXx

Pyrrha's voice was laced with aggravation and pain as she groaned out, "Yang?"

"Yeah, P-baby...?" She didn't sound any better.

"...I don't like you right now..."

"I understand..." Both girls were nursing hangovers as their teammates sat beside them at the breakfast table. It was the morning after, and both teams (minus the afflicted two) were eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Vytal tournament's first round match ups.

Jaune passed a cup of water to Pyrrha before addressing the group with a question. "How do things progress after the first round, again? I'm having trouble remembering."

Weiss rolled her eyes but made no verbal jab as she pulled out her scroll to read out the instructions. "The second round will be the doubles round, and the third starts the single rounds. Every match besides round one will be decided by an automated random generator. First round matches will be spread throughout Monday and Tuesday. Break on Wednesday. Thursday will be doubles, Friday will be Singles, with an extension to Saturday if deemed necessary due to time issues or fighter exhaustion. Any other questions?"

A gravelly voice spoke up from behind her. "I've got a correction, ice queen. They aren't doing the whole 'random thing' anymore, it's all gonna be on a predetermined bracket."

Everyone turned to face the speaker, with Ruby jumping out of her seat when she recognized him and glomping onto his arm. "Uncle Qrow, you made it!" She paused. "How do you know they changed it?"

"Because I know Ozpin, squirt." He gave Ruby an affectionate pat on the head before setting her down. "Do you remember when the CCT was broken into?"

"Duh, I was there. I fought the bad guy, remember?"

"Right, right. Anyways, yesterday we discovered a whole slew of information, including finding out that the random generator had been tampered with. The council decided it would be best to lose it and do a proper seeded tournament bracket instead." Qrow looked around the table. "Which one of you is Lil' Nora?"

The addressed stood, or rather bounced, off of her seat. "That would be me! Nora Valkyrie at your service."

Qrow gave her a wistful smile. "Ozpin asked me to give you the unofficial thank you for helping us out."

"Awesome, no problem!... What did I do?"

He raised his eyebrow. "You kids haven't watched the news lately, have you?" They gave a collective head shake 'no.' "Let me show you something." Qrow pulled out his scroll and opened up the Vale news website, searching for a specific article. Finding it, he set his scroll in the table for all to see and hear.

["Hello, and thank you all for tuning in to this breaking news story. I am Lisa Lavender.

The Atlas Military and authorities at Beacon Academy are reporting the arrest of several individuals for treason. Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, and Emerald Sustrai, have all been arrested for conspiring against the Valean government, unauthorized entry of the Central Communications Tower, and undisclosed involvement with the known terrorist group 'The White Fang.'"

Their mug shots were displayed on-screen: Cinder wore an angry expression, Emerald had her head down instead of looking at the camera, and Mercury looked almost amused.

"When asked how the arrests came to be, General James Ironwood gave this comment. 'These arrests were made due to the coordinated efforts of the Atlas Military and Beacon's staff and students. While specific details of the investigation shall remain classified, I can honestly say that the futures of our Huntsmen and Huntresses in training look bright.'"]

The video cut out then, but the desired effect had been achieved: every member of teams RWBY and JNPR had their jaws ever-so-slightly hanging open, except Nora who exclaimed, "Did I just save the world by running into somebody!?"

"Yeah, you kinda did, kid," Qrow said as he restrained his laughter. "A plot to tear down Beacon, stopped by some bad luck on the big bad villain's part. Unfortunately, Ol' Ironhead says that they can't give you an official thank you since doing that would require disclosing how you helped, which isn't, and I quote, 'very inspirational to the people.' Hence why I'm here to give you a grateful hand shake on behalf of the kingdoms."

He stuck his hand out, and Nora grabbed and shook it with all the force that she could. "It was my pleasure, dearest uncle of my friends! Question: since Professor Ozpin knows about this, is there any chance I can get, like, an automatic pass on my next test in somebody's class?"

"Probably not, but I imagine that your friends here can find a way to congratulate you. I'm gonna head out, but I'll be watching your fights. Put on a good show, will ya?" He left without waiting for an answer, leaving the others to come to terms with their new junior detective Nora.

Ren, who was the most adjusted to Nora's shenanigans, recovered first and asked, "Is there anything special you would like to do today, Nora? As bizarre as all of this is, you did help prevent a possible catastrophe."

"Hmmm~" She put on a show of thinking about it, her eyes flitting between Jaune and Ruby. "What if I were to be the leader of both of our teams for one day?"

Both leaders looked to their teammates with silent questions. Weiss and Blake shrugged, Yang gave a lazy thumbs up, and Pyrrha managed a smile despite her hangover. Meeting each other's eyes and nodding, they bowed their heads to their temporary leader.

Nora raised both of her hands in joy. "Yes! I'm queen of this team until tomorrow! For my first decree: tipsy lips are loose lips! Jaune, you must tell us all what Pyrrha and Yang talked about while they were drinking."

"Yes, your majesty. They talked about the tournament tomorrow, how pushy fans are awful, how the music sucked at the bar we went to, and..." Jaune paused as he saw Yang making a cutting gesture at her neck. 'Don't talk about you-know-what', she tried to convey.

Queen Nora was smarter than the average Ursa, however, and did not miss the little display. "Suspicious~. Citizen Jaune, what is she trying to cover up?"

"She... she..." He sighed in resignation. "Sorry, Ruby. Yang talked a bit about how there's a guy you like."

Ruby went from smiling to stunned at light speed. She slowly turned to face her sister, who now looked like she wanted to bury her face into the table. "Yang. Xiao. Long. Did you tell them who it is I like!?"

Yang threw her hands up defensively. "No, no! I just told them how I was proud of your maturity when things didn't go as well as you hoped. That's it, I swear!"

"Actually, there was one extra detail." Pyrrha surprised everybody when she spoke up due to the fact that she was smirking. "The first thing Yang mentioned was how she thought a particular guy was cute, but she never spoke up because she didn't want to interfere with Ruby's attempt at love."

Now, Ruby had shown many faces to her teammates. From pride to sorrow, joy to frustration, there was so much they'd seen of their young leader. That day marked the first time they had ever seen her be _smug._ "Oh? Now that's an interesting piece of information. Your majesty Nora, would you like to hear who this mystery man is? I do believe you'll enjoy this."

Nora nodded vigorously, putting her ear right next to Ruby's lips. Weiss and Blake leaned in so they could hear as well. A moment later, there were five particularly smug women looking down at Yang, who was doing her best impression of a fish out of water. "Citizen Yang, tell me: how bad is your hangover?"

"Um... I've had worse?"

"Good to hear, because we're about to make it worse. Citizens Ren and Jaune, you two are dismissed until one-thirty, when we shall have a joint team training session near the forest for the tournament. Fare thee well, gentlemen!" Grabbing Yang with both hands and putting her in a fireman's carry, all six girls left the cafeteria with gusto. When Jaune sent a questioning glance to Ren, all he got in return was a shrug. They began eating their breakfast in silence.

Velvet appeared a few minutes into their meals, baring her own food tray. "Hey, Jaune! Where are the others?"

"Long story, I'll tell you later. How are you this morning?"

"Pretty good, I'm excited for the tournament." She sat down and began to eat as well, but the moment was interrupted when Jaune's scroll began playing a song. "Who would call you this early in the morning?"

Jaune pulled the device out of his pocket and examined it. "It's my family. Whoops, I've been forgetting to call them." He pressed the 'accept' button and was greeted by the smiling face of his mother. "Hey mom, sorry I haven't called in a while."

Juniper Arc, his mother, could very well have been his female twin by her appearance. Her shoulder-length blond hair served to emphasize her sapphire eyes and small face. "Oh, Jaune, It's okay. The family just wanted to talk to you before the tournament got underway. We couldn't get the time off work to actually come by, so this is our chance to wish you and your team good luck. How are things going?"

"Pretty well, actually. I'm confident in my team, they've come a long way in their coordination."

She smiled through the screen. "That's wonderful. Hazel is practically begging me to pass the scroll, but I have to ask one motherly question: does my boy have a girl in his life now? The last time we talked about your love life you were swooning over that one girl... Weiss, was it?"

Jaune gave a rueful laugh. "Actually, the answer is yes. Velvet, would you like to meet my mom?"

The bunny nearly panicked from the conversation turning to her so quickly, but visibly kept her composure and said, "Absolutely."

Jaune moved the scroll so that both he in Velvet were in the shot. "Mom, this is my girlfriend Velvet. Velvet, meet Juniper Arc."

Velvet bowed her head a bit. "It's nice to meet you ma'am. Your son has been so sweet to me these past few weeks."

Nobody missed the woman puffing her chest out in pride. "He'd better be, I raised him to treat women right. Also, please don't call me ma'am, it makes me feel old. Call me June."

"Yes ma- Mrs. June."

"Close enough." An offscreen voice got her attention. "Hazel has hit her limit, apparently. Velvet, meet my youngest daughter."

A girl that looked no older than six popped onto the screen. She had the same hair and eyes as her mother, just with the former pulled into pigtails. Velvet idly wondered what Jaune's father looked like since Hazel and Jaune seemed to be mirror images of their mother. "Hey, big brother! Hi miss girlfriend!"

Velvet greeted her with equal enthusiasm. "Hi! It's nice to meet you, Hazel."

"Nice to meet chu-" Hazel stopped and massaged her left cheek, having managed to bite it while talking. "...You, too. You're very pretty, Miss Velvet."

"Why thank you, that's very nice of you to say."

"So what made you start dating my brother?"

"Well, it all started when he started teaching me how to dance. Did you know he's a really good dancer?"

"Uh-huh, Mom says my sisters made him learn."

"That's right, and he wanted me to learn so we could dance together. After that we started talking a lot, and decided we wanted to try dating. Does that answer your question?"

"Hmmmm." Hazel put her fingers to her temples and started rubbing them, as if trying to deal with this new information. "Dad once told me what he told Jaune: that the main thing big girls want in a boy is confidence..."

Velvet tilted her head quizzically. "Confidence is nice to have, but I don't think-"

Hazel hadn't finished her train of thought, however, and interrupted Velvet with, "...but that all the confidence in the world was useless if you weren't strong enough to protect the one you love. Then Jaune and Dad fought in the yard. Is big brother still weak?"

The table at Beacon suddenly felt impossibly cold, and Velvet found herself staring at Jaune. His lips were pursed together tightly and his free hand was bone-white as it gripped the table, as if it was taking all of his willpower not to turn off the scroll. Ren, who was close enough to hear the conversation, put his hand on Jaune's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. What caught Velvet off guard was that Hazel didn't seem to have even the slightest ill intent; she was simply calling things as she remembered them.

The silence was shaken by Juniper grabbing the scroll from her daughter and bringing herself into view. "Jaune, honey-"

"Mom, just... don't. I get it, I was never supposed to be a huntsman." Jaune sounded forlorn rather than angry. "But I'm here now. I have a great team, and a wonderful girlfriend. Both of them are pushing me to be the best that I can, and there isn't a thing that will change that. Can you pass that message to dad?"

Juniper Arc gave a resigned sigh. "Of course, dear. Just... please be safe, okay?"

"I will. I love you."

"I love you, son, and your father does, too."

"I know." The call ended unceremoniously, Jaune setting his scroll down with a sigh. He turned to Velvet and said, "Hazel's always been blunt, so what happened is nothing dark or vile, okay? She just calls it as she sees it."

"I could tell, don't worry. Jaune, you're better than you were before. You and your team can do anything together."

"I know, but thanks for saying it." He gave his beloved a nose nuzzle, but was cut short in his show of affection by his scroll vibrating. "Again? Who- Oh, it's from the tournament administration." Shown on the screen was a message that had been distributed to all competing team leaders.

[Greetings, students. Attached to this message is a picture of the tournament bracket. This bracket is effective for the entirety of the competition, so study it and your opponents well. Good luck to all of you.]

Jaune quickly hit the download button, making the bracket appear on his screen. After it revealed itself completely he searched for their teams. "Team RWBY is on the far left of the bracket, and they face team NDGO round one. JNPR and CFVY are more on the right side. CFVY fights Team BRNZ, JNPR against team SSSN. Oh, somebody got a bye for round one. Team...F-N-K-I? Funky?"

Ren spoke up. "What about the doubles round? We need to plan ahead as best we can."

"Right. In round two, RWBY will face the winner of team CKKI (Cookie) versus team HTBN (Heartburn). JNPR fights..." He stopped speaking and gave a heavy sigh. "Ouch."

Velvet gently grabbed his hand. "What's wrong?"

Jaune didn't look up from the scroll as he answered, "CFVY and JNPR will be meeting round two."

xXxXx

 **Uh oh.**

 **After Picture Perfect is complete (or very close to complete) I'm going to be starting a new Jaune-centric fic, but I need to know your opinions. I can either do an AU fic where Jaune is a Bullhead pilot, or I can throw my hat into the Gamer-Jaune ring (in canon-verse). The tones will differ wildly. Case in point: the working title for the former is "The pilot", while the working title for latter is "I told you to SLAY the Grimm Dragon, not LAY the Grimm Dragon."**

 **It won't feature actual Grimm sex, though, promise.**

 **I'll be setting up a poll on my profile, so please let me know which you would prefer to read. I would also appreciate any assistance I can for things-to-avoid with either story.** **Thank you, and have a nice day.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Just a reminder, there is a poll on my profile for what fic I'm doing post-Picture Perfect. AU Jaune vs. Canon Gamer Jaune. Make your opinion known!**

 **If I wind up doing the Gamer Jaune, I'm going to need a better title than 'Jaune "Laid the Grimm Dragon" Arc'. Taking suggestions lol.**

xXxXx

Roman Torchwick was bored.

He didn't know what time it was as he lay on his cot. He understood perfectly well why he had to be there, of course; being aboard the General's flagship meant he had access to the Atlesian drones once Cinder's plan kicked in. That didn't mean he had to like the wait.

Cinder... Oh, how he hated falling into that honey trap. It's almost comical how quickly things shifted from 'I need a favor, handsome' to 'Do this or I eviscerate you soul.' Roman Torchwick's number one priority is survival, however, and her group was set to change all of Remnant.

Still, the Atlas Military could give him a pinball machine or something. The inactivity was driving him mad.

He was interrupted from his train of thought by the sound of glass breaking and his partner Neo waltzing into his cell. "Hey there. Little early for the party, isn't it?" She responded with her usual, foxy smile and passed over her scroll. Roman took it without question and hit the visible play button.

He watched.

She waited.

Roman's voice was quiet when he finished watching the video. "Neo, is this legitimate? This isn't a part of her plan that I didn't know about, but her well and truly getting busted?" Neo simply nodded.

The effect was instantaneous.

Roman began literally rolling across the cell floor in laughter. "HAHAHAHA! Is it my birthday? Is it Dustmas already!? That bitch got brought down by Beacon!" Neo was holding herself up with the wall of the cell, silent laughter barely hidden by her hands. This continued for several minutes until Roman managed to get a hold of himself.

"What do you know, Neo, Monty does exist. You know the details of what got her busted, right?" Nod. "You've gotta tell me about it later; but for now, let's just get out of here. I hear Mistral is nice this time of year." Both thieves disappeared from the cell, with Roman's guards none the wiser.

Until it came time for lunch, at least.

xXxXx

One-thirty rolled around, sending Ren and Jaune to the outskirts of the Emerald Forest. The remainder of JNPR and RWBY were present and ready, though Jaune noticed that Yang was looking rather harassed.

He decided not to comment on it. "Ruby, you got the bracket from the administration, didn't you?"

"Yep. Unfortunately there isn't much any of us know about team NDGO, so we're just gonna have to be prepared for anything. You got lucky, in a way, since our team knows how Sun and Neptune fight."

"I'll take whatever you've got."

Blake stepped forward and said, "Sun uses shotgun-nunchucks, but more important is his Semblance: he can create light-based clones of himself by holding his fists together. When we fought at the docks, I noticed that the real him has to stand still to control the clones."

"It's a moment of opportunity," surmised Ren. "It will require effort to capitalize on it, however. What about Neptune?"

That was Weiss's turn to shine. "I previously convinced him to share the details of his weapon. It's a combination quando, trident, and miniature railgun that channels electricity. That sounds like a task for-"

"Queen Nora!" The hammer wielder could not have been happier. "I shall challenge him to a duel, and when he foolishly hits me with his weapon my wrath shall rain down upon the battlefield!"

Jaune stifled a laugh. "That sounds like a good start for our fight with SSSN. I'm actually more worried about round two."

Pyrrha inquired, "I haven't examined the bracket fully, who will we be facing in the doubles match?"

"Team CFVY." Jaune showed them all the bracket as proof.

Yang gave a low whistle. "That's gonna be rough for a few reasons. Does Velvet know?"

"Yeah, she was with me when I received the message. She commented that they would most likely send Coco and Yatsuhashi to the doubles round, and knowing what I do about them that's strategically the right choice." Jaune's voice indicated that he was concerned, but not distraught over the situation. "Pyrrha's a definite for the doubles anyways, but that makes it hard to decide whether we should send Ren or Nora."

"Hold on a second," chimed in Weiss. "You seem rather collected considering JNPR will be facing your girlfriend's team."

"Honestly I _was_ a little freaked out at first, 'I don't want to hurt you or your team' and all of that. She pointed out to me that we're all Huntsmen and Huntresses in training, though, and quote 'we would have a terrible relationship if it can't survive a sanctioned fight.' So I'm gonna focus on being a proper leader for my team and help them through this like I'm supposed to."

Nobody missed the happiness and resolution that was evident in his voice. Weiss responded with a combination of amusement and something akin to respect. "Arc, I hope you appreciate that you have a very mature woman in your life. I can't think of that many people who would be okay with you doing your job at the cost of her team."

"Right?" Jaune couldn't resist a private chuckle. "We all have our responsibilities, and she wants me to fulfill mine. I think that's enough melodrama for now, how about we get to those drills?"

xXxXx

-Tuesday Morning-

Peter Port's voice rang throughout the colosseum, "-and team JNPR claims their victory by ringout! Both teams gave it their all, so please give them a round of applause for delivering an entertaining match!"

The cheers of the crowd were so loud, Jaune was fairly certain he wouldn't be able to hear himself speak. The whole of JNPR took a moment to soak in the applause before stepping down from the stage. Pyrrha was beaming with pride as she said, "That match went very well! Jaune, you did an excellent job leading us out there."

"Thanks, Pyr. Nora had a huge advantage, though: the thunderstorm formed over the mountain, Neptune used a lighting trident, and it turns out he was afraid of the water on their own side. Monty didn't like their team today, I guess."

"Psh, well it was Renny that managed to use Scarlet's grapple hook thing against him." Nora was, in her own way, refusing to take all the credit. "Plus, Pyrrha really worked that Sage guy down quickly. You know what, how about we just say we're the best team and leave it at that?"

They all laughed and agreed to spread the credit. As they stepped out of the 'Employee and fighters entrance' they were greeted by team CFVY sans Fox. Velvet rushed forward and gave Jaune a hug. "Your team did amazing out there!"

He returned the gesture with a nose nuzzle. "Thanks, it felt pretty good. Where's Fox?"

Coco answered, "With May from BRNZ. He apparently has to take her on a date to make up for the way we thrashed them."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Yatsuhashi did take two of them out in one swing."

"I know, and she seemed to understand that it was just business, too. I honestly think it was just an excuse for them to be alone together. Speaking of fighting significant others," Coco lowered her face so that she was looking at him over her sunglasses, "I need a word with you, Arc."

Jaune nodded and waved his team on. "Yeah, I gotcha. You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up with you on the fair grounds." His teammates disappeared, taking Velvet with them into the crowd. When they were finally alone he asked, "So what's on your mind? Besides the obvious."

"Just a small detail, lover of my friend. Velvet told you that we'd be sending me and Yatsu on, right?"

"Right. I'm still trying to figure my team's second fighter out, so-"

"There's been a change of plans."

That surprised him. "What happened?"

"Velvet requested that she take Yatsuhashi's spot in the doubles. I'll still be going to the singles rounds, of course, but she apparently really wants to fight you directly."

"Why would she..." His voice drifted off as he remembered the scroll call from Sunday. "No, I get it now. Did she tell you the reason?"

"Nope, it seemed like it wasn't her business to share. All I want to say is don't let her down, all right?" Coco gave his shoulder a light squeeze and walked away, leaving Jaune to his own thoughts.

Velvet's intentions were fairly obvious, even to him: she wanted to give him a second chance to prove himself in the ring, just in case his father hadn't been impressed with his just finished match. He hadn't done horribly in holding Sun off while the rest of team SSSN was picked apart, but it wasn't the kind of showing that would impress a Hunstman like his father. Round one had been an example of leadership rather than skill.

He needed to show both.

Jaune made his way to the fair grounds and found his team fairly quickly, Pyrrha and Ren watching in amusement as Nora flung ring after ring in an attempt to fit it around the head of a bottle. He slipped in between the two non-participants and asked, "How many tries so far?"

"Seven," answered Ren. "She wanted to do the ball toss, but the man running the stall recognized her from the downtown arcade and wouldn't let her play."

"Makes sense. I have a favor to ask, Ren." The raven haired boy only raised an eyebrow, but it was enough to show that he was listening. "I need to do some one-on-one sparring against you during our break tomorrow. You can fight unarmed like Velvet does, and I need practice against that."

"Why don't you just ask her for practice, Jaune?" Pyrrha seemed particularly confused. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah, CFVY is sending Coco and Velvet the doubles round. You and I are going to be their opponents, Pyrrha."

A voice chipped in from behind him. "I knew you wouldn't let me down, Jaune." They turned to see Velvet smiling with a large bushel of cotton candy in one hand. "Although I feel that I should apologize for deciding to do it all on my own."

"Nah, no need to feel sorry. I appreciate you coming up with the idea."

The P and R of JNPR were now officially lost, with the former asking, "Jaune, just what is going on?"

"I'll explain it to you as we had back to the dorm. The short version, however, is that Velvet is helping me with a family problem. I feel like grabbing some carnival food, so who's coming with me?" With a soft smile on his face, Jaune led the other four on a quest to claim some high-fat, high-cholesterol yummies.

xXxXx

"That's a horrible thing for your father to say! Why didn't your mother defend you?"

Jaune tried to settle his partner's outrage as they approached the team dorm room. "She did her best to stop the blatant insults, but at the same time she didn't want me to be a Huntsman, either. My father was stopping me because I would 'tarnish the legacy', while mom just wanted me to stay where it was safe."

Nora was up next. "But they're still supposed to support your dreams. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to be your real family from now on."

"Ouch, Nora. I thought we already were family." Jaune infused his words with as much mock hurt as he could. Nora, for her part, simply beamed at having been considered part of his family all along. "Let's rest up tonight. We have a big day of training tomorrow."

"That's right, fearless leader! We have one day to whip you into shape, so we'll start with-" Nora stopped as they entered their room. "Somebody sent me a present?" Smack in the middle of her bed was a small, purple box wrapped tightly with a white bow.

Ren strode over and picked up the envelope that was taped to the top of the box. "It says 'To the hallway runner.' That must be you, Nora, but how did they get into the room?"

The team came up with no answer to that, so Nora simply plucked the envelope from his hands and opened it. "Let's see here: 'This type of thing usually isn't my style, but you managed to bring down the big bad Cinder and I felt that you deserved a token of my appreciation. Thanks to your little run-in with the villain, I'm free to get out of Vale and start things over. Tell the black cat that Adam Taurus was stealthily arrested on Monday, and that Atlas has slowly but surely picking up everybody else that was even hinted at being a part of Cinder's entourage.

Dearly, R. Torchwick.'"

"Torchwick? Wasn't he arrested back at the Breach?" Jaune's sentiments were shared by Pyrrha and Ren, but the words had barely left his lips before Nora ripped into the present and took out what was inside: a derby hat, which everyone quickly recognized as the one Roman had been seen wearing in every one of his appearances.

With a confident hand she stuck it on her head and spun to face her teammates. She wore it as the man often had, tilted slightly to the right and forward. "What I wouldn't give to have his cane and complete the look. How do I look, Renny?"

"Like a smooth criminal, Nora. Just be careful who you wear that around, we don't need the police thinking you were ever involved with the man's thefts."

"Can do!" Nora skipped over to the bathroom mirror and began examining her own appearance. The others laughed and started doing their own things. Amidst the hustle and bustle, Jaune couldn't help but to be excited for the match on Thursday.

xXxXx

 **Nora had obtained the legendary item "Roman's Derby Hat!"** **Effects: 5 to Charisma and Dexterity, 50% chance of success to 'Taunt' actions.**

 **I skipped over the round one fights because they wouldn't have contributed anything to the story, but have no fear: CFVY vs. JNPR shall receive full coverage.**

 **Shout out to Dark Durian for guessing that Roman would get the hell out of Vale without Cinder holding his leash. Think about it: all of Vale would be looking for him if he stayed in the country, and he'd ultimately gain nothing from it. Better to cut losses and start over.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: As of the posting of this chapter, the 'Which story' poll is closed with a decently distinct winner. Originally, this was going to be the part where I make a new poll for people to decide on the story name, but the current trend of reviews seems to be favoring the "Jaune 'laid the Grimm Dragon' Arc" thought process.**

"Why not make the poll anyways, Panda?"

 **Because I believe in power of the people with these polls. If that title won, I would be compelled to use that as the story title and that honestly scares me. First impressions matter for stories, and if the opening words indicate something bizarrely silly and I don't write a story to match that wacky, zany tone, readers will drop it like a sack of bricks.**

 **I'll write the occasional omake, though, so those of you who are desperate to witness the creation of a dragonsired... look, we'll get there. Eventually.**

 **To the guest reviewer who guessed that the guy Ruby likes isn't Jaune: sorry. It very much is him, but she's moving on (slowly).**

 **CFVY vs. JNPR, everybody!**

xXxXx

"Team CRDL put up a valiant effort, but they were no match for the groove that is Team FNKI!"

Port's attempts at humor were largely ignored by the members of Team RWBY. They had a far more important match to witness: the one between two teams of friends.

Weiss eyed the overhead electronic board where it would reveal the next fighters to the crowd. "Jaune never did confirm whether he was sending Ren or Nora, but I believe that Nora would be the better fight against Yatsuhashi. She can take hits better than he can."

"Maybe," followed Yang, "but Ren can do a whole bunch of damage if he uses his Aura-enhanced strikes. Those would tear through Yatsu's armor like it was made of putty."

"What's this about putty?" The girls turned their heads to the right to see Nora taking a seat adjacent to them with a bucket of popcorn in her hands.

"We were discussing who Jaune sent down there for the fight," answered Blake simply. "I guess the answer is Ren."

"I'm afraid it isn't me, either." RWBY leaned forward and got a glimpse of Ren's distinct pink streak of hair just past Nora. "I was under the impression that Jaune had told you about the changes."

Ruby's head began whipping back and forth between her friends and the stage. "Jaune sent himself to fight Yatsuhashi!? He'll get crushed!"

"Nah, he'll be fine." Nora had a confident smile as she took the first few bites from her bucket. "It's going to be an epic clash between boyfriend and girlfriend, he can't afford to look bad."

"Between who-" Weiss was cut off as Professor Port's voice boomed throughout the stadium.

"It's finally time for the most anticipated match of the doubles rounds! Coming from the right side entrance are Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina representing Beacon's second-year favorite to win, team CFVY!" An entire section of the crowd brought out pairs of sunglasses and berets in a show of support. "And arriving from the left are Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc, representing team JNPR!"

It was Oobleck's turn now. "What makes this match so tantalizing is that Jaune Arc and Velvet Scarlatina are a known couple amongst Beacon students. They say that all's fair in love and war, and this is a bit of both!"

The commentators kept rattling off tropes and references, but Yang couldn't hear them anymore. "By Oum, this is really happening. What are those two thinking?"

Ren leaned forward so that all of RWBY could see him speak. "The simplest answer is that they're making a point. No matter what happens, they are a Huntsman and Huntress before anything else."

xXxXx

Before the fight with team SSSN, the stadium had felt more than a little overbearing to Jaune. Between the large battlefield, the crowd, and his own nerves, he'd been extremely flustered and needed a few comforting words from Pyrrha to calm down. Today, however, he processed none of that. There was no crowd screaming at the top of its lungs, there were no commentators hyping the people up. There were only three people in the world that mattered: his partner, and his two opponents.

As Pyrrha and Jaune approached the center of the ring, the latter's eyes fell upon his girlfriend. Velvet was in her battle outfit, camera box strapped tightly to her hips. She met his gaze and nodded, waiting until he was within hearing range to say, "It's good to see you, Jaune."

"Same here, Velvet. You look good today." She smiled in response, but didn't say anything back. The time for words had passed. Now was the time for action. Pyrrha and Coco nodded at each other without exchanging words. There was nothing to say to begin with.

Holograms around the ring began spinning, flashing images of the potential stage settings that could make or break any match-up.

Island, magma, forest, city, ice, mountain, field, geyser. Island, magma, forest, city, ice, mountain, field, geyser. Island, magma-

 _Ding!_

On Jaune's left the forest symbol settled, causing the previously empty arena to fill up with tall, dense foliage. On his right, the city symbol brought forth the rubble of multiple small buildings, complete with some broken out windows. He and Pyrrha shared one last look of encouragement before separating, Coco and Velvet following suit. Coco and Pyrrha went towards the forest without entering since the match had yet to start. Velvet and Jaune stopped just a foot away from the pavement in the city.

The rules had been decided between them beforehand: stick to one side of the arena for your fight, and you may not interfere with the other duel even if you've finished your own. The words of Professor Port reached his ears for the first time. "It looks like the combatants are all prepared! The match begins in three...two...one..."

Jaune and Velvet mouthed only two words to each other: good luck.

"GO!"

Velvet uses her powerful legs and shot into the city, jumping from structure to structure until she stood on the rooftop corner of two story building. Jaune did his best to follow, but stopped and hid along the edge of a wall when she spun around. This wound up being the right decision, as a hail of bullets shredded the ground where he would've been. The concrete of his corner kept him protected, but he couldn't get a good visual on her.

He took a moment to process what he knew about her camera and semblance. Tournament regulations forbade bringing spare bags or cases into the arena, and Velvet's camera box could only hold ten pictures in the container at a time. She just used Coco's minigun, but he had no clue what the other nine were.

The bulletstorm ended and he immediately rounded the corner, dashing towards her with his shield up and ready. Velvet jumped down directly above him, hard light forming into Ember Celica as she slammed her fists into his shield. His knees buckled from the collision, but rather than push back he rolled his shield forward and down; this caused Velvet to fall to the ground due to her remaining momentum. Jaune capitalized on their positions by charging forward with his shield, slamming her face and sending her several feet back before she rolled onto her feet. Velvet threw her fist forward to use the gauntlet's shotgun functionality, but it faded away to nothing as its time ran out.

Jaune stepped forward and made a vertical swing, forcing Velvet to dodge backwards as she formed another weapon. Crescent Rose appeared and she swung it from left to right at the height of Jaune's head, making him duck to avoid having his head severed. He made to advance but halted as Velvet did a quick 360 spin and brought the scythe behind his now-bent legs.

The rifle went off and his legs were taken out from behind him, sending him flat on his back with a loud crack as his skull met the pavement. Jaune would loved to have just stayed there for a moment, but his instincts screamed for him to move and he complied; he rolled to the left as the head of the scythe dug into the ground where his chest had been. Forcing himself to stand, he faced Velvet and entered his ready stance as she did the same. Both of them were panting, but neither could deny the thrill they were feeling as the adrenaline pumped through their bodies. As she formed the next weapon in her hands, he allowed himself one idle thought:

 _"God she's beautiful like this."_

xXxXx

The Invincible Pyrrha Nikos.

Coco had heard all of the rumors surrounding the champion; it was hard not to when she had won four consecutive _kingdom-wide_ tournaments in Mistral. She hadn't watched the recordings of her fights, so in the fashionista's mind she had quietly attributed the victories to a series of flukes, or a general lack of proper opponents.

She'd been wrong.

The duel had started simply enough. As soon as it begun, Coco shifted her purse into its gun form and started what she affectionately called the 'Spray and Pray' plan; blasting the entire area surrounding her opponent and hoping some of her bullets flew true. It always worked on slower opponents, but Nikos quickly darted from cover to cover to avoid receiving any punishment.

Some trees eventually began falling from the abuse they were taking, leaving an open semi-circle centered around Coco's starting position. The firing stopped as she ejected her first supply line of bullets and inserted her second. Unfortunately, her bullets were not infinite in number. If she wanted to actually win this, she would have to let Pyrrha get close.

After a moment of relative silence, Pyrrha understood that now was the time to approach and dashed in. Coco re-converted her weapon back to purse form and slammed it down on the approaching fighter. Pyrrha was by no means weak, but taking the weight of the weapon and adding Coco's strength resulted in a blow that shook her to her core as she blocked it her shield.

Fortunately for her, Coco was slow in withdrawing the weapon; as the older girl began to pull back, the champion deftly slid her hand along the all-metal purse. A black glow around it confirmed that she had properly marked it. Coco went for another vertical swing, but as she swung the purse glided ever so slightly to Pyrrha's left, and the latter's knee went directly into the stomach of the former.

The fashionista grabbed the offending leg and pulled, throwing Pyrrha off-balance and giving Coco the chance to headbutt her. Such attacks are always two-way streets, and both girls had to withdraw a few steps and reorient themselves due to the pain. Pyrrha went on the offensive and launched a series of sword swings and kicks that had Coco almost frantic with her dodging and blocking. It took having her own purse suddenly flung into her face to realize what the champion had done just a minute ago, and the leader within Coco reevaluated the odds of her winning.

It broke down into a list of negatives: Pyrrha had magnetized her only real weapon, she herself wasn't the best at unarmed combat, and a quick glance at her aura meter revealed that she was slowly but surely losing Aura while she was on the receiving end of this onslaught. If Yatsuhashi had been there, this mismatch wouldn't have happened; instead, she was being forced into Pyrrha's pace while Velvet and Jaune put on a demonstration for the boy's father.

 _"I hope those two appreciate all that I do for their love life."_ She wasn't bitter, but she did regret unintentionally throwing away CFVY's at winning the tournament. _"Oh well. The Vytal festival is bi-annual, so there's always senior year."_

xXxXx

Jaune mentally ran through the list of weapons Velvet had used so far: Coco's, Yang's, Ruby's, Nora's, Blake's, Weiss's, Sun's (much to his dismay and proper thrashing), and Yatsuhashi's. Eight out of ten used up, then he'd have the advantage; but man was he _exhausted_.

He allowed himself a glance at the electronic board where the Aura meters were posted. His Aura was at 30%, Velvet's was at 35%, Pyrrha was sitting at a hardy 74%, and Coco was the lowest at 22%.

Geez. At least his partner is having a good time.

Velvet, using Yatsu's sword, had just knocked him sky high and onto the roof of a one-story building. He cautiously peeked over the edge to see her on the ground creating eight thin blades that hovered less than a foot in front of her. With the tips pointed towards him, the swords began rapidly spinning in a circle and a green ball of energy began to form in the center. It was almost pretty to watch, until he remembered that it was an attack and that it was being aimed at him.

Jaune launched himself off of the roof sideways, landing on the ground with a grunt as the beam attack completely decimated the rooftop he had been standing on. He couldn't help playfully calling out to Velvet with, "Did I do something to deserve that death ray of yours?"

"That depends," answered the bunny with a teasing tone. "Are you flirting with other girls, or have you been a good boy?" She was unarmed now, with one picture left in the camera box.

"I think I've been a good boy; but here, let me come over there and prove it!" Jaune dashed forward, hoping to close the gap before her final weapon appeared. To his surprise, she allowed him to get within range. She nimbly and easily dodged two of his tired strikes, and as he went for a thrust Velvet brought her left arm up to block it, wireframe-ish light forming a shield.

What shocked him was that the light her Semblance was forming was not the usual light-green in color, but a firm sapphire blue. He retreated a few steps to see a replica of Crocea Mors gripped within her hands, the sunlight from above gleaming off of both sword and shield. The duplicates seemed more... solid than they had ever been before.

Velvet chuckled as she answered his unasked question, giving the sword a little twirl for effect. "I've been experimenting with Dust in the photographs to improve their duration. Care to help me test it out?"

He smiled at her. She returned it.

Then they met in a flurry of steel.

He attacked with renewed vigor, exhaustion forgotten as they clashed on the pavement. Due to her Semblance, Velvet was using his personal style against him. Both of their blows were hard and heavy, sword against sword as they fought to connect with one clean hit. Jaune blocked her attacks with his shield while Velvet focused on parrying his attacks to the side.

This exchange occurred for upwards of two minutes, neither warrior budging an inch. It all came to a climax when Velvet performed a backhand horizontal swing. Instead of blocking the attack, Jaune took a risk and extended his sword arm a bit further forward than he normally would for a blade block and swung at her wrist from the inside. He was rewarded for his efforts as his sword met her wrist and she dropped the fake Crocea Mors in pain. Without a wielder, it and its shield accompaniment faded from existence. Jaune stepped in and placed his sword at her neck, silently daring her to make a move.

The tense moment was interrupted by the end-of-match buzzer resonating throughout the stadium.

"Velvet Scarlatina is out by Aura level! Ladies and gentlemen, team JNPR has claimed victory in what was truly a fight to remember!" Much to Jaune's surprise, the stadium crowd was going absolutely nuts over the fight. He saw Pyrrha near the center of the ring, grinning broadly and clapping along with the crowd. The noise was deafening, but he managed to focus his attention on his beloved.

Velvet was openly panting from exhaustion, smiling from ear to ear as she approached him for a hug. He followed suit, putting away his gear and embracing her despite being the center of attention for the entire world. Her breath was warm against his chestplate as she said, "I'm so proud of you, Jaune."

"Thanks, Velvet. You were amazing, too." They stayed like that for a short moment, until Jaune felt a powerful urge. "Hey, Velvet?"

"Hmm?"

"If I'm remembering what you said right, you wanted me to 'warn you before doing something like that,' right?" He separated just enough for her to look at his face in confusion.

"What are you tal-" Velvet cut herself off as she realized what he meant and went incredibly red in the face, her left ear drooping in embarrassment. She did, however, begin to pull herself up to his height. "You're a big dummy, you know that?"

"Yeah, but I'm your big dummy." Their lips met in a heartbeat, and for the second time that day the entire world disappeared. There _was_ no camera displaying their kiss to the masses. The crowd was _not_ somehow increasing in volume.

It was passionate without being deep, both of them injecting every bit of affection they could into the gesture without making it PG-13. Jaune's hands cupped her cheeks as he leaned into it, prompting a happy squeak from the rabbit.

Eventually, they had to return to reality. Flushed in the face from both embarrassment and exhaustion, they walked to the stairs leading off of the arena. Jaune would forever swear by the Arc name that as he stepped off of the platform, he saw at least two large signs in the stands that said "It's about time!"

Who had had the time to make those, anyways?

xXxXx

 **Nine chapters in for us to get the big damn kiss. Was it worth the wait for you readers?**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thank you all for your warm words. I'm grateful that you folks love Picture Perfect so much.**

 **However, if I'm not mistaken, this is the chapter we've really been waiting for; the moment that this story has been building towards since I turned it into a series. Ladies and gentlemen...**

 **Meet Dad.**

xXxXx

It was Sunday afternoon at Beacon, and the cafeteria was particularly noisy that day. Normally, the weekends would see the students vacate the lunch hall in favor of additional training or eating in the city of Vale; this day, however, it was the location of a celebration.

"Congratulations!" The cheers erupted from RWBY, CFVY, and SSSN as they sat around the rearranged tables. Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, and Ren were sitting next to a small but ornate crystal trophy. Slim at the base and wide at the top, the words in the center were clear for all to see.

 **40th Vytal Festival Tournament**

 **Champions**

 **Pyrrha Nikos**

 **Nora Valkyrie Lie Ren**

 **Jaune Arc**

Jaune was blushing from both happiness and embarassment. "Thanks, guys. Can we move yet?"

"Not yet!" Velvet was snapping away with her DSLR camera. "I need to get you all at different angles. Just keep smiling, please."

"Velve~t, even my face is starting to hurt from the smiling." Nora had been the one to actually suggest the small photo shoot, but as the seconds wore on her smile was getting more and more forced. "Can I do some other pose besides just sitting here?"

"I guess you-" That was all the permission Nora needed; without missing a beat, she reached under the table to produce her coveted derby hat and a cane, leaning on it with her left hand and bringing Ren into a one-arm hug with her right. Velvet only shrugged. "Okay then. Pyrrha, Jaune, are you gonna pose?"

They looked at each other and Pyrrha leaned close to whisper an idea to him. Jaune listened intently and nodded when she finished. He moved forward on the seat without getting off of it, arms holding themselves on top of his knees. Pyrrha hopped onto the table and sat on it, placing both of her arms over his head and letting her head rest on them as they all smiled at the camera.

Ruby decided to chime in while Velvet resumed taking her shots. "Can you tell us again how you got that hat, Nora?"

"I told you; it was a gift from our favorite thief!"

"That doesn't make any sense." Weiss couldn't deny her own curiosity. "Why would he send that to you?"

A surprising save came from Blake, of all people. "Don't question it too much, guys. We checked it for poison and explosives, didn't we? Let it slide for once."

Sun raised an eyebrow as he turned to her. "I'm surprised you're so casual about this after everything he put your team through."

"I just appreciated the good news he delivered; after I verified it, of course." The smile on her face was so genuine it made everyone falter in their line of questioning. Blake was the only person Nora shared the note with, at Ren's advice.

Yang decided to change the topic for good. "Look, can we finish up the photo shoot and get to the cake? I've never actually had ice cream cake before, and I'm scared that it'll melt before we sink our teeth into it."

"Well..." Velvet looked like she wanted to continue, so Jaune copied Ruby to the best of his abilities and whipped out the puppy-dog eyes. "Alright, but I'm going to be getting a few candid shots."

The formation broke and they all descended upon the cookies 'n' cream delight, Yatsuhashi dealing out slices as everyone continued talking amongst themselves. Other Beacon students attempted to slip into line to nip some cake for themselves, but Nora was quick to smack their hands away with her cane and a cry of 'Rude!'

Several minutes after everyone had been given their first round (and Ruby retrieved her second,) Jaune's scroll burst into song. He brought it out and smiled as he saw his Mother's contact ID. "Hey there, Mom."

Juniper Arc was similarly all smiles at seeing her son. "Hello, Jaune. Congratulations on your team winning the tournament!"

"Thanks, it's great to hear that from you. I have all of my friends around me. Think you can memorize a lot of names and faces at once?" Jaune raised an eyebrow as he challenged her. She looked appropriately offended.

"Just who do you take me for, son? I could memorize all of Beacon's students if I had a reason to. Let's make the rounds!" They spent the next few minutes walking from person to person, introducing everyone present in no particular order. When all of the greetings were said and done, Juniper decided to dive into the deeper reason for her call. "So, Jaune, how did your talk with your father go?"

"What talk? You're the first person to call me this whole week."

A quiet beat passed. "Has he not shown up yet?"

"What do you mean shown up? Dad's on his way here?"

"Yeah, he said that he wanted to congratulate you in person. Where is Nicholas?" The last sentence was spoken more to herself. Jaune set the scroll on the table, stood on top of his seat, and looked around the cafeteria.

His efforts bore fruit quickly, a familiar face entering his vision just over the sea of students. Jaune raised an arm up and shouted, "Dad, over here!" The addressed man snapped his attention towards him and made his way over.

Jaune's friends all stood up to get a better view of the new arrival. Nicholas Arc was a beast of a man: six-foot-six with a blond lion's mane on his head, beard grown out but kept wild instead of styled. As he got close, Velvet was confident that Jaune had his father's chin, but...

The rest of the man seemed so un-Jaunelike. His voice pitch was a bit lower than Jaune's, on top of feeling rather stiff for a man talking to his child. "Hello, son. I apologize for being late, but I wasn't certain about where I would find you. Beacon hasn't changed a bit from my day."

"It's not a problem, sir, I'm just glad to see you." The atmosphere was tense between them despite the polite words. "May I introduce everyone to you?"

Nicholas simply nodded, so Jaune gave the brief version. "These three are my teammates, and we make up JNPR. No, I don't know why Professor Ozpin would give it Mom's name. Over there is our sister team, RWBY, led by Ruby Rose. To your left is team SSSN, led by Sun, and to your right is team CFVY, the only team not named after a person it seems. Any, uh, questions?"

"Just one: team CFVY is a second-year team, correct?"

Velvet answered for Jaune. "Yes, sir. We're led by Coco, and my name is Velvet. I'm... your son's girlfriend."

Nicholas nodded in acknowledgment, but gave no further attention to the rabbit Faunus. "Son, may I talk to you in private?"

Jaune frowned. His father only sought privacy when it came to matters of the 'family legacy'; it was the man's way of making sure nobody would interrupt his lectures. Whatever Nicholas wanted to say, it wasn't a congratulations. "With all due respect, sir, I'd prefer if we just talked about it here."

" _Jaune_." It was sharp without being loud, unwilling to heed to his son's request. Ruby leaned over towards Yang and whispered a question, which was not missed by the old man. "What I want to discuss isn't for prying ears. Come with me."

"No."

The voice was quiet, and it was only after a moment that everyone realized it had come from Velvet rather than Jaune. "He wants to talk about it here, and we don't keep secrets from each other."

Jaune felt a strong surge of affection for her, but kept his actions in check as he addressed his father. "Just say what you have to say, dad."

Nicholas peered at the group of students before him. Most of them had developed firm looks in their eyes, as if they were ready to throw down at a moment's notice. With a sigh, he looked down at Jaune and said, "Return Crocea Mors to me. I can see that these two semesters at Beacon have done nothing to improve your lack of skill."

It was dead silent for a moment as the teenagers absorbed the words that were just spoken. Jaune was feeling... well, a lot of things. Anger, frustration, disappointment. Could his father really not see the progress he'd made?

Pyrrha was the first to speak up. "Sir, what do you mean his skill hasn't improved? He's progressed leaps and bounds compared to enrollment."

Nicholas was completely cold. "What I mean is that he felt it necessary to put on a little play in an attempt to pull the wool over my eyes. I had been considering retrieving our family blade from him for some time, and watching his distasteful performances live only sealed my opinion. Son, did you really expect me to believe that a boy with absolutely no training prior to joining Beacon could beat a second-year student so handily?"

Yang was the next to jump in. "Whoa, whoa, what? What part of that fight looked 'handy' to you? From where we were sitting, that was pretty hard fought."

"Oh, please. Ms. Nikos's fight was hard fought, yes, but I know Jaune; he is a no talent child that snuck his way into Beacon. On that note, boy, how did you manage that? I know Ozpin tends to recruit based on perceived potential, but with no combat school transcripts or private tutor to back you up I fail to understand what he could see in you."

There it was, out in the open; the secret that Jaune had fought to keep hidden was laid out for all his friends to see. Ironically, he couldn't bring himself to care about that over his building tension. His chest rose and fell as he glared at his father. "What right do you have to even ask that? How many _hundreds_ of times did I ask you to train me? You refused to train me, didn't even think to tell me about Aura- Thanks for that, by the way, I'm sure Professor Ozpin would have just loved to have to explain to Mom why her son had been turned into red _paint_ after being launched from a cliff."

Nobody can yell within a crowded room without attracting attention; in mere moments, most of the cafeteria was locked onto the drama playing out before them. While Jaune's voice was getting hot, Nicholas's proceeded to get icy. "I believed your Beacon acceptance announcement to be some practical joke, or an excuse to run away from the family. Back to what's important, child; where is my sword?"

"Sir, you can't expect Jaune to continue being at Beacon without a weapon. Can't you see that he's earned his way while he's been here? His team truly trusts him to lead them through anything." NPR nodded in solidarity at her statement; nevertheless, Velvet was exasperated by the utter lack of understanding Jaune's father was showing.

"Tell me, Miss: How long have you been training to be a Huntress?"

The shift in conversation perplexed the bunny. "Huh? Um, three years at a combat school in Vacuo, plus the year-and-a-half I've been here at Beacon. Why?"

"Four-and-a-half years of training compared to six months; that is the time gap between you and Jaune. Unless one were to assume the worst of your capabilities, Jaune shouldn't be able to beat you. That is why I called your match a 'play', and why Jaune isn't worthy of wielding Crocea Mors. I wanted to withdraw him from Beacon completely for his attempt at deception, but I recognize that I legally don't have the right to do that; therefore, I shall be leaving the school grounds with the heirloom instead."

Ruby physically jumped over the table and thrust her arm protectively in front of Jaune. In any other circumstance it would have been seen as cute, but her silver eyes carried an anger to them rarely seen before. "You want to punish Jaune for growing quickly as a fighter and leader? I've seen the effort he's put in, and you have no _right_ to take anything from him!"

Coco gazed at Nicholas over her sunglasses. "It's amazing how such a petty man could be a father to a guy like Jaune. He must've taken after his mom."

Ren stepped forward and forcibly separated the Ruby/Jaune duo from their staring contest with Nicholas before addressing the latter. "If I may ask, what reason did you have to not train Jaune?"

He grunted a response rather than saying it. "I wanted him to be more like my old friend's son; Jaune should've been more like Winchester Junior."

"Winchester Junior?" Jaune finally broke eye contact with his father as he focused past his anger. His voice was incredulous as he met the eyes of his friends, who looked equally confused. "You wanted me to be like Cardin!?"

The crowd reacted almost instantly; in one fell swoop, the onlookers parted across half of the hall to reveal team CRDL, who were in the middle of eating and seemed confused as to why they were being stared at and whispered about. After a solid minute of being the center of attention, Cardin himself stood up and made his way over to Jaune and his father. "Alright, what happened and why am I being stared at?"

For the first time throughout the conversation, Nicholas smiled and sounded almost joyful. "Hello, son. I'm Nicholas Arc, your father's friend. Has he told you about me?"

"Told me? Heck, every time you guys got together and played poker I'd hear something about 'Good ol' Nick.'"

"Ah, your father is a big fan of Vacuo Hold 'em. Sorry to disturb you, we were just discussing some family issues and your name came up." The man's jovial tone served to further confuse the teens that stood around Jaune. 'Where did this come from!?' they all screamed in their minds.

Cardin remained neutral, if a tad annoyed at his meal being interrupted. "And my name came up because...?"

"Your name came up because I was informing Jaune that he should strive to be like you."

"...Are you serious?" Cardin now looked as confused as Jaune felt. "Why should Jauney Boy be like me? He's doing alright as he is, and it isn't as if my team won the tournament."

"Don't feel too bad about the loss, Junior. That Neon girl was a poor match for just about anybody, let alone a bulky man like you. Anyways, we were discussing the pre-Beacon days, before you or Jaune became official Huntsmen-in-training. Jaune managed to make it in despite his complete lack of training, but if he had been like you I would've been more than glad to prepare him to be a Huntsman."

"Let me get this straight: you're complaining about how he was before Beacon despite everything he and his team have accomplished and, somehow, I'm the kinda guy he should've been." Cardin's face was unreadable.

Nicholas nodded vigorously. "It's clear to me that my son has fabricated several details regarding his skills, such as the tournament-"

"Permission to speak freely." The simple sentence smoothly cut off Nicholas's rambling, but he didn't seem offended.

"I welcome it, Junior."

"You're full of shit, old man." The world had officially flipped upside down. Cardin was defending Jaune against the latter's own father, who looked as if he'd been slapped. "I mean when Jaune first got here, yeah, he was terrible. Case in point, I was bullying him for a while in any way I could. Launching him in a locker, blackmail, you name it. That went on until I ordered Jaune to have Nikos hit with some rapier wasps. Do you know what he did then, Arc?"

Nicholas didn't say a word, which Cardin took as permission to continue. "First, he bucked up to me in order to defend her. Then, he saved my life from an ursa major that showed up- an ursa major that my 'bulky' self couldn't even hurt, but Jauney killed in one swing. Finally, after all was said and done, he _ordered_ me to never mess with his friends again. You have three guesses as to what I haven't done since then, and the first two don't count. Does that sound like somebody who needs to 'be like me?'"

Silence prevailed. Nicholas took two steps back as he took in Cardin's apparent betrayal of his expectations, looking back and forth between him and Jaune. The moment was disturbed by Nora grabbing the crystal trophy from the table and handing it straight to the stunned man. "Here, take this back to the family home. Put it somewhere ve~ery high, so that you can see Jaune's name on it from across the room."

That action finally elicited a response from him; he angrily tossed it back into the group, where Sun nimbly reached up and caught it. "Again, that little bauble means _nothing!_ Jaune didn't earn that, his partner did! Any fool can convince his _whore_ to throw a fight for them-"

 ** _*Bam!*_**

Jaune's fist connected with his face, sending the older man flying back into the onlooking crowd. Nicholas made to stand, but quickly found Coco's heel planted into his neck and forcing him to stay down. Jaune stood over him, absolutely seething with rage. "You. Will _never._ Disrespect her like that again."

"You insolent little-!"

The cafeteria doors slammed open, with Goodwitch and Ozpin walking in. The crowd of students immediately dispersed to make way for them. As they approached Ozpin said, "Ms. Adel, please release Mr. Arc's father. I can't approve of students harming school visitors, even if they are related by blood."

She complied, but did not stop glaring at him as he stood up. "Sorry, headmaster, but I don't take people badmouthing my team very well."

"I understand; nevertheless, please leave this situation to us." Ozpin stood between the teens and Nicholas, taking turns between sipping his coffee and glancing at the latter. "Nicholas, you know very well that I have surveillance cameras in all of the public areas within Beacon, yes?"

"Of course I know that."

"Good, that makes this simple then: please vacate the premises." Despite the word 'please', Ozpin's tone left no doubt that it was a command. Nicholas managed to look incredulous.

"On what grounds!?"

"You've antagonized and mocked my students, as well as threatened to steal their personal property."

"It's my property! Crocea Mors belongs to the Arcs!"

Goodwitch chimed in, "That's peculiar: if I remember correctly, you married into Arc name. Is that not correct?"

Jaune recoiled a bit. "This is the first time I'm hearing about this."

Ozpin turned his head to respond to him. "Your father was one of my students, but back then he was known as Nicholas Bonne. Your mother enrolled the same year that he did and, if memory serves, he pursued her almost from day one. He took her surname when they married."

Weiss whispered to herself, "So that makes him the same as my father: a legacy chaser who married into his fortune. How funny that Jaune and I should have that, of all things, in common."

Blake, having Faunus hearing, leaned over and remarked, "Jaune never struck me as being particularly rich; then again, they do have to feed eight children. Wait, do you hear something?" Both girls looked for the source of a strange, high pitch noise that had entered Blake's ears. Weiss happened to look at the table where Jaune had been sitting and felt her face shift into a grin.

The argument between the adults continued, with Nicholas roaring, "...and you're content allowing that deceitful failure of a son to continue learning here? He must've submitted false documents, because he definitely didn't learn anything at home!"

Ozpin was unperturbed. "Looking at the situation now, perhaps that was for the best. As you pointed out earlier, I recruit students based on the potential I see in them. Jaune has been growing to meet his quite well, so I don't have any qualms about his tenure here."

Nicholas was about to snark back, but a tap of his shoulder got his attention and he looked down to see Weiss gently smiling up at him. "What do you want?"

"Greetings, Mr. Arc. I am Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. I hate to interrupt at such a critical time, but," she brought Jaune's scroll up for him to see as she continued speaking in her sickeningly sweet tone, "your wife wishes to speak to you."

Nicholas visibly shut down as he saw his wife's face over the scroll call. Her resemblance to Jaune was more pronounced then ever, as she wore the same expression of anger that he did. "H-Hi there, June."

"That's Juniper, to you." Her voice was laden with contempt. "I've heard everything you've been saying. You say that Jaune has been deceitful, but how were you planning on explaining to me why you had Crocea Mors when you came home?"

"But honey-"

"Again, you only have permission to call me _Juniper_. Leave, Nicholas. Give my son his scroll back and return, because I have more than a few words prepared for you." Nicholas, properly shamed for the first time in his life, shakily handed Jaune the scroll and walked out of the cafeteria. Jaune absentmindly pressed the end call button, grateful that he had forgotten to do so earlier.

Ozpin and Goodwitch made to follow Nicholas, but Jaune called out to them. "Professor Ozpin!"

The headmaster stopped and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Yes, Mr. Arc?"

"Thank you for... everything, sir. I won't let you down." The only response he received before the Professor departed was a light smile. When the adults had all removed themselves from sight, Jaune looked at Cardin and asked, "So the reason you chose me for your bullying was...?"

"My dad, more or less." Cardin shrugged as he answered. "Every time they played poker they'd share stories about how the families were doing. When dad would return from out of town, I'd hear him say stuff like 'That Jaune sounds like he'll be a real champ, no matter what Nick says.' Over time, I got extremely tired of hearing about you. When I heard your old man talking crap about you and praising me, it made me feel like a kid again... in a bad way."

"Huh." There wasn't much he could say to that. "Our dads suck."

"Yep. Anyways, later Jauney Boy." Cardin turned to walk back to his team's table, but Nora jumped forward and grabbed his shoulder. "Got somethin' to say, Valkyrie?"

"Yeah, and believe me when I say that I never imagined saying this to you before today." She brought up a plate with a slice of cake on it. "Want some cake? We have enough to share."

He gave it a weary glance. "It isn't poisoned, is it?"

"Nah, you're a cool guy now; well, at least 'no longer a jerk.' Come on, it's cookies 'n' cream ice cream cake." She almost yanked Cardin's arm out of its socket as she made him sit with the cake. Jaune laughed laughed at her antics and waved the rest of team CRDL over. There's no point in only Cardin getting cake.

The party resumed and laughter returned to the tables. Velvet leaned her shoulder against Jaune, who held her tightly as he talked with Russell. They didn't have to say any words of thanks to each other, because both of them felt it the other's embrace.

xXxXx

 **Did you like how I had Nora mess with Nicholas? I'm proud of that bit, I think she makes an excellent Torchwick.** **I suspect that that'd be a great crack pairing, but I don't have the motivation to write it.**

 **Here's a funny little aside:**

 **I tend to write my fanfics with the ff (dot) net app since I'm usually writing them at work. With me having several days off in a row this week, I decided to sit with my laptop to write out this chapter and start early plans for the gamer fic.**

 **I wound up spending several hours doing absolutely nothing productive, unable to add more than a few words to the page; then, giving up on making any progress, switched over to my phone and promptly nailed out this chapter. Apparently, I have conditioned myself to only be able to write with my phone. That's... annoying.**

 **I also put up my beta profile; if you go read it, you'll realize I stink at writing about myself.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** **I have a lot to say in the end notes below; but for those of you who won't read the whole spiel, let me just say that it has been an honor and a privilege writing and sailing this ship.**

 **Everybody, the conclusion to Picture Perfect.**

xXxXx

Jaune's fingers drummed against the desk in front of him in a steady rhythm. Professor Peach was once again absent from her class, but a bored looking Peter Port was in place to ensure that no one left before the video presentation on fauna unique to Vacuo finished. It was honestly a wonder that no one in the student body had ever seen the alleged teacher in the flesh, and it crossed his mind, not for the first time, that she may be a figment of Ozpin's imagination.

While the boring presentation continued, Jaune spent a moment contemplating all that had transpired in the months following the confrontation with his father:

First, his family. After days (and days) of discussion, Nicholas and Juniper were still married to each other, though "happily" was no longer an applicable word. It was, surprisingly, a mutual decision; they still had four children living with them, and while Nick had shown himself to be the human equivalent of a flea, his younger sisters still deserved to have some type of father figure in their lives. All bets were off once the kids left home, however. A part of Jaune wanted the most obvious solution to happen, but he quickly squashed that thought; he would only harm himself by being vindictive.

The more positive side of that coin was that all of his sisters now fully supported him in his efforts to be a Huntsman. None of them had ever been truly against it, but they now understood that he actually had the potential to succeed. It felt good knowing he had their faith.

Second, his school life. He was able to keep a B average for his academic courses and, somehow, managing to stay middle-of-the-class in Goodwitch's combat lessons. According to Pyrrha and Velvet, this was due to both his dedication and improved confidence following him moving on from his childhood... well, not trauma, but issues with his father. None of that made Yang pummeling him into the floor easier to handle, mind you.

JNPR as a whole had completed multiple missions, and it was there that he truly felt his improvements; as long as he avoided developing tunnel vision in the larger-scale battles, he could lead his team well and bring them home happy, healthy, and with a mission complete. Team RWBY was also doing well, and had recently returned from a re-investigation of Mountain Glenn where they had been paired with Team CRDL.

Speaking of CRDL, there was the situation between Cardin and himself. They still weren't exactly 'friends,' but there was a shared, genuine respect between them when they happened to work with (or fight against) each other. This was helped by Cardin giving Velvet an honest apology for the way he had treated her at the beginning of the school year.

That brought the mental list to its final, and most important, person: Velvet herself. Their relationship was going strong, to the point that Jaune could comfortably say he was truly in love with her. They spent as much time around each other as they could: studying, taking pictures, and, yes, occasionally arguing with one another; but they had adopted a policy of never going to bed angry, and always made sure they had their disagreements settled before turning in for the night.

There was one thing on his mind these days, and that was that they had yet to actually say the words 'I love you' to each other. Jaune wanted to find the perfect moment to lay his heart wide open, but had thus far been unsuccessful at securing that special time.

So he was going to make that moment happen himself. There was an end-of-the-year party the following week, where RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY were going to celebrate getting one step closer to graduation. He was going to present his special 'hobby' to everybody at that time, and announce- okay, re-proclaim his love for his bunny girl.

The bell for dismissal rang throughout the school and Jaune shot like a rocket towards his dorm room. He needed as much practice as he could get, and his team (who were the only people who knew about his hobby and plan) had agreed to let him practice in peace after classes. The door unlocked and he marched in, intending to make every minute count.

To his surprise, the door reopened behind him almost immediately, and he turned to see Ren, his brother from another mother, walking in. "Hey, man, what's up? I'm surprised you aren't with Nora right now."

"Jaune, I... have a favor to ask of you." Ren was the quiet, serious type on a day-to-day basis, but there was something different in his tone that grabbed Jaune's attention.

"Anything you need, Ren. I'm all ears."

"It has to do with your plan for next weekend. Could you help me with doing the same thing?"

"Help you with...?" Ren produced two sheets of paper and handed them to Jaune, who read and re-read them until he got the full picture. "...I get it; you want to confess to Nora at the party."

Ren gave a noise of confirmation. "I was initially going to make it a more... private affair; but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, for Nora, it would be the type of moment that should be shared with everybody. If you help me, I would gladly settle for this happening after your plan with Velvet."

Jaune remained silent for a moment. His answer was already determined, but he wasn't sure how to say it for the best reaction.

"Ren, I will not put your dedication after my own." The ninja slumped his shoulders and opened his mouth to say he understood, but Jaune cut him off with, "Instead, your request shall be the main event. I'm making your confession front and center!"

It achieved the desired effect; Ren rarely, if ever, gets flustered, but at that moment he was practically panicking. "Wha- Jaune, no, I can't do that to you. You've been planning this for two weeks now, and I don't want to get in the way of that."

"Ren, what does Nora mean to you?" The ninja took a moment before answering to make sure he had heard the question right.

"After we lost our hometown, Kuroyuri, Nora was the only thing that kept me moving forward. She's my rock, my foundation." Ren tapered off on the last sentence, but he couldn't fight the small smile that appeared on his face. Jaune offered a smile in return.

"Then put your faith in me and in your feelings for her. We're gonna make this a moment she'll never forget, okay?" Jaune stuck his fist out, and Ren bumped it with his own. "Just make sure she doesn't find out about this."

"I'll make sure she's occupied every minute of every day if I have to. Thank you, Jaune."

They shared a bro hug and Ren departed to find his beloved. Jaune reached under his bed and pulled out a heavy case. It was time to practice. "He sure did pick a sappy song, though. That's a little surprising."

xXxXx

Velvet and Coco were together in the library, preparing for the end-of-year exams that were coming up. The latter had her head down in her textbook, but the former was a little distracted. "Coco, do you have any idea what Jaune's been up to?"

"For the third time, Velv, no. Yang hasn't found out anything new about his supposed 'hobby', and we've been pushing his team for information this whole time. When he's ready to tell you about it he will, okay?" Coco loved her teammate, but one can only hear the same question so many times before they lose their patience.

Jaune was still the same great man Velvet had come to adore, but every time she asked about this mystery of his, he would start to blabber or change the topic. He was sweet, but a very bad liar. The rabbit started mumbling, "It's just peculiar that he's willing to share so much about himself except that. He helps me with my photography so much, and I just really want to return the favor if what he's doing is really a hobby."

Coco rolled her eyes and tried a different tactic. "Maybe it's a kinky hobby and he's trying to figure out the right time to introduce you to it."

Shw knew it was effective when she felt the rabbit freeze in place, mouth slightly agape at the thought of Jaune in a rather... inappropriate leather outfit. Coco took the opportunity to finish reading the last few pages of her book on Mistral's history. Setting it back in her bag, she decided to release her friend from her torment. "I was kidding, Velvet. He doesn't strike me as the type to have one of _those_ set-ups."

"R-right, I'm just worried over nothing. Well, I'm just gonna... swing by his dorm room for a minute and say hi." Velvet gave an awkward cough and rose from her chair while putting her supplies away. The trip to JNPR's room was uneventful, which gave her mind a chance to wander.

 _'Just what could he doing?'_ Jaune had done the occasional small surprise before, such as giving her flowers or a spare part for her cameras, but never had he kept a secret from her for such a long period of time. Whether it was a good secret or a bad one, it was clearly important to him.

Velvet gave a firm nod to herself. She was going to trust him, just like she always had.

xXxXx

-A week and a half later-

The three friendly teams were sitting in the courtyard of the school, music blaring from a playlist on Yang's scroll. The year-end party had turned into something of a potluck, with each person bringing whatever food or snacks they felt appropriate; as a result, the designated 'picnic blanket' was covered in a variety of sweets, sodas, and a conspicuously large bowl of tuna salad. Some of their fellow students would pass by and talk with them for a little bit, but by-and-large they were mostly partying by themselves.

Velvet was sitting near Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha, having a good time and taking the occasional candid shot with her camera. It was all fun, but she sometimes caught one of the two girls glancing at her with some secretive, knowing look.

An hour into the festivities, Jaune stood up and excused himself from the group. When he did so, Ren, who had been talking with Fox across the lawn, met his eyes and wound up leaving with him. They were gone for a few minutes, and while they were out Nora gave a strange, enthusiastic squee. "Oooh, it's happening! He's been preparing so much for this."

"Preparing for what?" Velvet tilted her head in confusion, and Pyrrha sent Nora a silencing look. It was too late to stop the leak, however. "What is going on, you two?"

Pyrrha gave a sigh, but she had the same smile on face that Nora did. "Sorry for being secretive all this time, but Jaune's been wanting to surprise you with something. He'll be back to show you what we mean."

Sure enough, Jaune came back shortly afterwards carrying a guitar case, Ren following right behind him with a small stool. Yang, sensing the atmosphere change, shut off her music and leaned forward in anticipation. The two boys set the stool just at the edge of the group, Jaune sitting down with his acoustic guitar and using a small device to tune it. As the puzzle pieces clicked into place, Velvet felt herself flashback to what Jaune told her before the dance.

 _"I could demonstrate the vocals I came up with, though it loses the effect without the guitar."_ Velvet's face nearly split in two from grinning. Nora was practically bouncing and Pyrrha leaned over saying, "I know you'll love this, Velvet. He's been practicing day in and day out."

Jaune, finally finished with the tuning, raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. "I hope you all don't mind me interrupting a bit, but I have a song that I'd like to share. Sometimes, we all have trouble saying the things we want to say to the people we care about; but I feel music is something that connects all of us together, so here's to hoping that the message gets across. Nora?"

Said ginger-haired girl stopped mid-bounce. "Huh?"

"This is to you, from Ren." Jaune smiled and put the guitar in position. His fingers began to softly pick at the strings, playing a gentle, loving tune.

 _Forever can never be long enough for me_ / _To feel like I've had long enough with you_

 _Forget the world now, we won't let them see_ / _But there's one thing left to do_

Ren made his way over to Nora and offered her a hand up, which she accepted with an almost star-struck expression. Gently, they began to rock back and forth in a two-step dance, completely ignoring the cheers of those looking at them.

 _Now that the weight has lifted_ / _Love has surely shifted my way_

 _Marry me_ / _Today and every day_

 _Marry me_ / _If I ever get the nerve to say "Hello" in this cafe_

 _Say you will_ / _Mm-hmm_

 _Say you will_ / _Mm-hmm_

Velvet was taking picture after picture, her camera clicking furiously as she strove to get the best shot. Some had the couple alone, others included Jaune playing in the background, still more captured the gazes of their friends. This was something special, and as Nora's expression shifted into something more natural and relaxed she felt the urge to jump for joy. Those two deserved this; that much had always been clear.

 _Together can never be close enough for me_ / _To feel like I am close enough to you_

 _You wear white and I'll wear out the words "I love you"_ / _And you're beautiful_

 _Now that the wait is over_ / A _nd love has finally shown her my way_

 _Marry me_ / _Today and every day_

 _Marry me_ / _If I ever get the nerve to say "Hello" in this cafe_

 _Say you will_ / _Mm-hmm_

 _Say you will_ / _Mm-hmm_

As Jaune sang, his eyes met with Velvet's and they shared a private smile. He mentally apologized to the song that he had written just for this occasion; if he played it after this, it would take away from the new couple's moment. Promising it that it would soon see the light of day, he finished the current song as best he could.

 _Promise me_ / _You'll always be_ / _Happy by my side_

 _I promise to_ / _Sing to you_ / _When all the music dies_

 _And marry me_ / _Today and everyday_

 _Marry me_ / _If I ever get the nerve to say "Hello" in this cafe_

 _Say you will_ / _Mm-hmm_

 _Say you will_ / _Mm-hmm_

 _Marry me_

As the music came to an end, Nora brought Ren's head down to meet hers. It was an energetic, if clumsy, first kiss, and when they separated they were nearly out of breath. Absolutely red-in-the-face, they both sat down and accepted everyone's warm wishes, hands still held tightly together.

Velvet walked over to Jaune and gave him a broad smile and a kiss on the cheek. "How did you know that I love men that can be romantic?"

"I just had a feeling." He laughed as he put the guitar back into the case. "Ren asked me to dedicate that song to her, and there was no way I was going to say no. Now they can officially say they're 'together-together.'"

They chuckled and Velvet leaned her face into his neck in an embrace. "They told me that you were supposed to be singing for me, but you passed that up to let something even more special occur. I love you, Jaune."

"I promise you, it wasn't a hard decision... and I love you too, Velvet." They stayed just like that for several minutes, basking in the glow of their own love. Planting a kiss on her forehead, he leaned back and asked, "By the way, did you get any good pictures? I saw you snapping away over there."

"Oh, yes, and I think I know which one is my favorite." She brought her camera up and began clicking through the images, eventually settling on one and showing it to him. The displayed image was a more distant shot that captured not only Ren and Nora, but everyone present barring herself. Their eyes were locked in a loving gaze, and all of their friends were smiling as they sat and looked upon the duo in the center. Jaune had one leg slightly higher than the other on his stool, mouth open just a little as he sang.

Jaune smiled as he took it in. "It's perfect, Velvet."

xXxXx

 **Oh goodness, where do I start?**

 **Picture Perfect started as just the dance scene from chapter one. There was no real plan to continue it, so I just crafted a narrative and shipped out the package. Easy peasy. As the reviews came rolling in and people kept saying they loved it, I started forming a more comprehensive storyline but... I was extremely scared to try it.**

 **I'm notorious for starting big projects and never finishing them; case in point, Tales of Neo. I don't plan to fail but I do fail to plan, and when the true scope of my undertakings hit me I tend to panic and shut down. So before I started on chapter two I said to myself, 'Panda, if you start this, you're finishing it damnit.'**

 **It has warmed me to my core seeing the love and appreciation you all have for my work. Over 200 follows, almost 150 favorites... Those aren't small numbers. That's pressure, that's _expectations_. Expectations that I will not let them down, because we all feel the occasional need to escape to a fictional world. To take a journey into a world of fantasy and magic, of romance and guns.**

 **So for every favorite, every follow, every review, and every one of you that clicked that link to read this story: thank you, thank you, and thrice thank you.**

 **This particular journey is over. The S.S. Moonbunny has been cast into the open sea, where it will drift until it finds a new home; but this captain is in the process of building a new ship, grander than this one and, hopefully, no less sweet.**

 **This is Random 'O' Panda signing off, and may I see you all in the story of 'Jaune, the Charismatic Gamer!'**


End file.
